Against All Odds
by crazybear23
Summary: Three years ago, the supercomputer was shut down. Now, at seventeen, Yumi and Ulrich are dating; Aelita and Jeremie are in love; and Odd has his eyes set on the new girl. But trouble is on the horizon, and this time, it may end in total disaster. ODDxOC
1. Arrival

((A/N: Hi!! This here's my first Code Lyoko Fanfiction. In case you didn't see, it's an OddxOC fan fic. I don't know how often I'll get to update, but I'll update as often as I will. Reviews provide wonderful incentive, however, so if you like (or if you don't), please review!!))

**((Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. I do own Gabrielle Bursley.))**

Chapter 1: Arrival

"_We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."—Harrison Ford_

"Ms. Bursley?" I didn't reply, didn't even bother opening my eyes. "Gabrielle?" This time, the voice had a bit of a bite to it. My chauffeur was getting impatient. They typically did these days.

"What is it?" I asked, bored.

"We've arrived, Ms. Bursley. Kadic Junior High." I sighed again and opened my eyes a crack to get a look at the building as we drove up the drive. It was a rather big school, but that didn't cheer me up in the least. For me, a big school was probably my worst nightmare (currently, in any case). There was way too much drama, something that I had more than enough of. And frankly, it was becoming infuriating. "How are you feeling, Ms. Bursley?"

I winced at the repeated use of formality. It was one of the sometimes-wonderful parts of being the daughter of two very wealthy entrepreneurs. My dear father had been the owner of a rather large distributing company, shipping goods all over the world: Bursley Issuing Company. My mother was the owner of a fashionable clothing and accessory chain: Olivella. She designed all her own clothing and sold it in her stores, which admittedly were extremely well off. Between the pair of them, they'd managed to make millions. When my father had died less than a year ago, my mother had seemingly randomly decided to pick up and move to France from the United States. Which brought me to the present, and to Kadic Junior High, a boarding school in said country.

A slight breeze ruffled my neon orange hair (dyed, of course; it was a rather strange habit I'd developed recently, dying my hair freakish colors) as I stepped out of the fancy car that my mother had forced me to ride in all the way from Saint-Servan. Typically, predictably, people stared. At me. Fancy cars and funny colored hair tend to do that.

The first thing I saw was the dull brick dorm building. The second thing I saw was a girl with long black hair, a cropped pink baby tee, and a pair of capris strutting towards me. She had on a big grin, big enough to look false.

"Hi!" she exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips and looking me up and down. She didn't really look impressed, but she quickly hid that and smiled a phony smile again. "You must be Gabrielle Bursley!"

"Gabby," I corrected automatically.

"Huh?"

"It's Gabby Bursley."

"Oh... right, well, I'm Elizabeth Delmas, the principal's daughter, but everyone just calls me Sissi." She suddenly reached out and took my hand in her own, pulling me away to god only knows where. "My father's so anxious to meet you, Gabby!"

Sissi continued talking at an alarming pace as she pulled me through what seemed to be the most populated areas of the school campus, pointing out things like where the cafeteria was, where the gym was, etc. She also took the liberty of sharing her personal opinion of everyone else with me.

"That group of guys over there is just a bunch of jerks! They play pranks on everyone, even the gorgeous, popular people like me! And those guys over there spend all their time playing video games, so boring! That there's Milly and Tamiya; they're reporters for the school news and they're always looking for a scoop, so watch out! And I'd avoid that group altogether!" She pointed away from the two ninth-grade journalists and to a group of four students, all of whom were giving me curious looks. Maybe I shouldn't have dyed my hair so bright... I scowled. I was already getting caught up in all the school drama, and I'd hardly been here five minutes. "Ulrich, the one in the green, is taken, and if he ever isn't, he's mine! So stay away from him! As for the others, they're all freaks, especially Odd, and that Aelita! Speaking of Odd, I don't see him..." She glared at the group balefully, her look darkening as one of them started our way. "Oh no, what does she want?"

"Hi!" the girl called, smiling kindly at me. She was eying my hair with interest, probably because it clashed horribly with my deep green over shirt. I stared with likely equal interest at her chin-length pink hair. She was wearing a darker pink dress, with light pink leggings underneath, and red boots. I wondered vaguely if _hers_ was natural before she continued. "Are you Gabrielle Bursley?" she asked, holding out her hand to shake mine. "I'm Aelita Stones, your new roommate."

"What?" Sissi yelled, nearly deafening me in her shock and horror. Aelita and I stared at her. "You? Who said?"

"Mr. Delmas asked me about it the other day. I agreed to have a roommate, and now here she is!" Aelita said brightly, appearing oblivious to the dark looks crossing Sissi's face.

Sissi growled at her before storming off angrily, presumably to rant to someone else about the injustice of my sleeping location. Aelita giggled at little bit, and then turned back to me.

"I'll show you to our room, Gabrielle."

"Call me Gabby," I said, following Aelita as she waved to her friends and led me back to the dorm building.

"Okay. I'm so excited! I've never had a roommate before! I'm sure we'll be great friends!"

I blushed; I could tell by the heat in my cheeks. We arrived shortly at the room and Aelita and I went inside. She pointed out my bed, and I carelessly tossed my stuff onto it, stretching out and looking around the room curiously. It was rather small, but it seemed quite nice: cozy, lived in. It was a good thing, really.

"It's almost time for lunch. You're more than welcome to come and eat with my friends and I. Unless you'd rather eat with Sissi?"

"No thanks..." I said slowly, spinning around to look at Aelita. "I think I'll... you know, get situated and stuff. I'm not really that hungry anyways."

"Oh... Okay then. I'll be back soon, then, to show you where the classrooms are."

I nodded, and she waved and left me. As soon as the door closed behind her, I sighed. Why the hell couldn't I be home schooled?

~$*ODD*$~

"I'm so bored!" Odd groaned miserably in Biology that same day. "I almost wish we never shut the supercomputer down; at least then we'd have something to do tonight besides hang around in Jeremie's room."

"Right," Ulrich replied, raising his eyebrow in amusement. "And all the life and death situations? Do you want those back too? How many times did you almost die, Odd?"

"Well... yeah, but it was fun! Three years..." he trailed off mournfully.

"Oh, Odd, I know you're bored, but—"

"Who's that?" Odd interrupted, a little confused as Aelita appeared in the doorway of the Biology classroom with another student that he'd never seen before. Ulrich rolled his eyes at him.

"That's Aelita's new roommate, Gabby. Aelita was talking about her at lunch, remember?"

"Well, yeah, but she failed to mention that she's gorgeous."

"Odd, you are such a moron. Can't you tell she's way out of your league?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Odd asked, clearly insulted. "I've dated nearly every girl in our grade, and quite a few outside it. How the hell is she out of my league?"

"Well, yeah, you have; but Gabby seems different. She's a seventeen year old goddess, for one thing—"

"You know, you're really lucky Yumi isn't here to hear you say that. She'd—"

"Oh, shut up! My point is, she's beautiful, she's probably smart, and I heard she's way rich. There's no way that she's going to go out with a goof like you."

"Hey! I take offense at that!" But Odd got the feeling that Ulrich was right. Not that he planned on admitting it. "Eh, she's not really my type anyway," he said stubbornly.

"Odd, she's _everyone's_ type. If I wasn't already in love with Yumi, she'd be my type."

"Why?" Odd snapped suddenly. Ulrich recoiled as if he'd been slapped. "I mean, it's not like she's perfect! What's up with that hair color anyways? Her head looks like it's on fire! And she probably isn't smart at all! Girls that pretty just don't have the brains. It's basically impossible! Not to mention, she's obviously got no fashion sense, because green and orange do _not_ go together! _And_—"

"All right, all right, shut it, would you! They're coming this way!" Ulrich hissed, elbowing Odd hard in the ribs. Odd grunted at the pain and massaged where he'd surely be bruised in the morning. He glared at "Gabby" as Aelita and her walked down the aisle to sit at the table behind the guys, something that she obviously saw.

But all she did was give Odd an icy look as she passed.

~$*GABBY*$~

I breathed deeply as I re-entered Aelita's and my dorm room. Finally, my first half-day was done. People stared at me all day, they whispered about me when they thought I wasn't listening, and there was Aelita's friend Odd who glared at me during Biology, but it hadn't been that bad. Honestly, I didn't really speak to anyone except Aelita and the teachers all day, so intent was I on not getting involved in the typical school drama.

Speaking of Aelita, she had entered the room behind me, and now she smiled at me as I threw my now-heavy school bag next to my bed. Her green eyes watched me carefully, had all day, and I couldn't decide if it was nice having her watch out for me or if it was annoying.

"My friends and I were going to hang out for a while. We're going to visit our friend Yumi; she graduated last year. Do you want to come?" Aelita asked suddenly, placing her own stuff neatly on her desk. I grimaced internally.

"Oh, uh, I don't think..." I trailed off, wondering if I could think of a nicer way to say no. Or maybe to go further and request that she not try to drag me into the group. "Well, see... I just... Man, this is difficult. It's just that, I'm going through a lot, see, and I just don't... I don't really feel like... _socializing_... especially with people I don't really know. And it's not—" I quickly continued, seeing Aelita's happy expression slide away— "that I don't want to be friends with you, or with your friends! I'm very grateful that you're trying to make me feel at home here! I'm just a bit... unbalanced... right now, and I think I'd feel a little better if everyone left me alone for a while. I mean," I stuttered on. Damn, I was making a mess of things. Aelita's look was now one of confusion and concern, probably for her own health. After all, I likely seemed unbalanced, and she did have to share a room with me. Poor Aelita... "We can still be friends and talk and stuff! But... just not—"

"I understand," Aelita interrupted, her smile returned. "Mr. Delmas told me not to bother you with questions, so I won't; but whenever you feel ready, we'll be happy to accept you. And if you ever want to talk, I'm here for you. You can tell me anything, promise!"

I stared at her for a minute before I nodded and smiled back. "Right. Thanks, Aelita."

She nodded, and then waved and retreated back through the dorm door, leaving me alone with my thoughts and a hell of a headache. How Aelita understood what I'd been saying was anyone's guess, especially since I hardly understood it either.

Sighing, I leaned back on my new bed, thinking about what Aelita had said. She was such a sweet girl. She seemed pretty trustworthy too. I'd been talking to a counselor since my father had died, but it might be nice to talk to someone else...

Then again, appearances could be deceiving. Maybe she was like the girls at my old junior high, before I'd been home schooled, who spent all their time gossiping.

Or maybe I was paranoid and antisocial. Yeah, that would explain a lot. Okay, so I would chat with Aelita later. But that didn't mean I would hang out with her and her friends. She was my roommate. I had to live with her for the next six months before vacation; I might as well get to know her. But I didn't have to live with her friends. And I wouldn't.

~$**$~

Aelita returned after dinner (which I ate alone, by the way. Like I said, antisocial) and she seemed in as good a mood as ever. I hesitated only a little before I launched into the speech I'd planned. If I waited too long, I'd chicken out, and then I'd be upset with myself and... well, it wouldn't be pretty. Aelita looked up at me as soon as I started.

"Aelita, you said I could talk to you, right? Because I need to talk. I've been talking to a counselor, but it always feels awkward and stuff and I don't feel like it's helping me much. I can trust you, right? You won't tell anyone else?"

Aelita stared at me for a second or two. Then she slowly nodded.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to. We can keep it between us."

Relief and gratitude filled me, and I smiled weakly. "Okay. It's kind of... a bit of a story, so if you want me to stop, just say something, okay. You don't have to let me ramble on..." She shook her head.

"It's fine. Just get it all out," Aelita encouraged, nodding. "You'll feel better that way."

"Okay," I breathed. "Here we go..."


	2. Secrets

((A/N: Yay!! Chapter 2! I'm pleased to report that... I'm posting this chapter! Thanks to William's fight for Yumi (Sorry there's no William, I'll try to fit him in somewhere...) and JokerAlchemist24 (Glad you like it! I'll update when I can!) for the reviews! They make me feel so loved!! Please, readers, feel free to review if you like/dislike/don't give a crap about my story! I love hearing your thoughts! In any case, enjoy Chapter 2!!))

**((Disclaimer: Still don't own Code Lyoko. Oh well!))**

Chapter 2: Secrets

"_The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart."—Saint Jerome_

Aelita and I had made ourselves comfy in our beds, propped up against pillows in our pjs. It felt a little strange as I began to talk, telling my short story to someone I had only met this morning.

"We were a happy family: me, my daddy, and my mom. We lived together happily in a big house on a hill in Montana. It's not really like a lot of people think it is: I mean, yes, there's horses and rodeos, farms, things like that, but we certainly didn't ride them everywhere. It's a gorgeous place, really; all the beautiful mountains and fields and stuff. I didn't go to a public school, because my mom didn't want me to; she said public schools were horrible, germ-filled environments, filled with money-grubbing bastards. Daddy didn't agree... but he made sure that I was home-schooled by the best. I learned French and Chinese, math, advanced English and literature, all sorts of sciences. And of course I still had a lot of friends, who I hung out with often. We hiked a lot, we went to movies, we hung around and talked like normal friends.

"My family hosted a lot of parties, and all the rich, greedy little families came and danced and ate. They were so _boring_ but my mom always made me play with the guests bratty little snots. They were all spoiled too, the whole lot of them. Of course, I kind of was too... in any case, my mom was always concerned about reputation, which was why I had to deal with the brats.

"Daddy often went out of town for business. He almost always came back with souvenirs for my mom and me. Usually, it was a t-shirt from Vegas, a bracelet from Italy, a traditional kimono from Japan. One day, when he came back, he had this weird computer software. He offered it to my mom, but she refused it, arguing that she was nowhere near tech-savvy enough for it; he offered it to me, but I refused it, saying that it looked creepy and I'd rather not have it. So he said that he would keep it."

"What kind of software was it?" Aelita asked. I furrowed my brow thoughtfully.

"I'm not sure. I thought it was a game, at first, but... now I'm not really sure. I honestly don't know if he ever used it... All I know is that it had this funny symbol on it. I don't really remember how it looked anymore. But Daddy just put away. I don't think that he ever used it. That was a few years ago. I never saw it again after that." I tilted my head and looked at her. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering," Aelita smiled.

"Okay... Well, my dad left again, this time to England. Only this time... he didn't come back. I remember coming home from my friend Tessa's house, and seeing a strange car in the driveway, and then seeing my mom weeping at the dining room table. They said that something had gone wrong with the plane, that it had gone up in flames, even as it was flying over the ocean. That was ten months ago."

Aelita gasped and covered her mouth rather dramatically. "Oh, god! I'm so sorry!" she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. She climbed out of her bed and crawled into mine, taking my hand. "That's terrible! I... I lost my father too, three years ago. I know how terrible it feels." She released my hand and hugged me instead. "You can cry if you want. I cried; but I had all my friends with me. And you've got me."

I nodded; now tears were gathering in _my_ eyes. She was making me sentimental, she was being such a nice girl. And I hated sentimentality. Yes, I'm one of _those _people. I wiped the tears away and sniffled.

"That's when I started dying my hair."

Aelita blinked. "Oh... I was wondering if that was natural."

"No, I'm a natural blonde, but my hair was exactly the same shade as my dad's." I paused, wondering if Aelita really could understand my pain, understand the magnitude of the loss; could she get how much I'd loved my father, the man who helped make me, who gave me everything I ever wanted, no matter how stupid or selfish or ridiculously meaningless it was; who loved me no matter what stupid or selfish or ridiculously meaningless thing I did; who was always there for me when I was upset or in need. Even the thought of the blond-haired, amber-eyed, six-foot tall man who'd been my father made my heart break in half. "Our eyes were the same color too... but that's a little harder to change."

Aelita was looking at me with a puzzled expression. "Why did you—"

"Whenever I looked in the mirror... I'd see him staring back at me. It was unnerving."

"I see. It must have been awful."

"It was," I whispered, leaning back into my pillow again. "He and I looked almost identical, except that he was twenty years older than me. My mom has brown hair and green eyes, but I'm five-six like she is. She always wears heels to make herself taller than me." Aelita smiled. "What about your mom? Does she ever do anything weird like that?"

She blushed. "Actually my mom died too. It was a long time ago, though, so don't worry about it..."

"I'm sorry..."

"Like I said, don't worry about it. I don't think about it much now, because I've got my friends, and I've got Jeremie."

"Which was Jeremie?" I asked, feeling a trace of guilt that I didn't know anyone's name but Aelita's.

"He was the blond one in the blue sweater and the khaki pants. He was wearing glasses?"

"Oh, right, okay. I'm terrible with names..." Aelita laughed, then turned somber again.

"So... how did you come to Kadic? You're from the U.S., right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I am." I pursed my lips and looked up at the ceiling. "I'm suffering; you can tell. I'm antisocial, and I'm depressed. I've been on medication to keep myself from getting too blue, and it's helped enough that I don't need it anymore." Aelita looked shocked at that information, but I continued regardless. "I felt like I'd lost a small part of me. But my mom... She was much, _much_ worse. She cried for weeks. She tried to commit suicide once. She tore apart the house. She cracked. Finally, she just decided that we were going to pick up and move. Actually, she sold our house along with everything in it because it all reminded her of him. She wanted to start again, and she randomly chose Saint-Servan, up on the north coast. And then," I scowled and sighed, "and then she sent me away."

"She... sent you away?" Aelita repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well," I started, grimacing, "I was the last that remained from him. So she sent me away. She sent me to a boarding school, where I'd be safe, but where I'd be... away. Somewhere she couldn't see me. Don't get me wrong," I hastened to add; Aelita looked horrified at the thought of my mother sending away me to Kadic, and I was pretty sure I knew why. "She loves me; she always has, even if she doesn't always show it the right way. And, like I said before, I'm all that's left of him. Of her husband, of my father. She loves me, and I love her too. But I think we both needed the change, the distance."

She nodded, looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Hmm..."

We sat (well... lay) in silence for a while. Finally, I said, "I think this is the longest conversation I've had in months."

Aelita giggled and grinned at me. "And do you feel better?"

"Yes. Yes, I do!" I smiled, and Aelita laughed harder.

Yup, we were going to be great friends.

~$**$~

"Gabby, do you want to eat with my friends and I today?" Aelita asked the next morning through a big yawn. We'd stayed up half the night talking, and now we were both exhausted. "Or do you still want to take some time?"

I stopped in the middle of pulling on my sweatshirt and looked around at her. "I... think I still need some time. But I'm getting there?"

Aelita nodded with a smile. "Okay. I'll see you in class then," she said cheerfully, waving as she headed out the door. I was a minute behind her going to the cafeteria.

~$*ODD*$~

"Finally!" Odd cried when Aelita at last joined the other four in the courtyard. "I thought I would starve to death! Come on!" And he was off to the cafeteria for breakfast. His four friends followed sleepily in his wake, getting in line behind him for their food.

When he had his tray, Odd glanced around the cafeteria for a place to sit. He beamed when he saw the unusual head of bright orange hair sitting at a table by herself.

"I think we should sit with the new girl!" he said happily, already walking her way.

"No! Odd!" Aelita snapped, but he was already gone.

Gabby looked up at Odd as he sat down, a baffled expression on her face. Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie soon joined him, but Aelita made a point of sitting a table away.

"Hey!" Odd greeted Gabby enthusiastically. Gabby glared at him.

"Good morning," she replied flatly. Odd pretended not to notice.

"I'm Odd Della Robbia. I'm one of Aelita's friends."

"Hm."

The corner of Ulrich's mouth twitched, as if he were itching to laugh at Odd's attempt to make friends. Odd ignored this as well.

"Maybe we could hang out sometime. Like... a date?"

Gabby couldn't even respond to this; instead, she just gaped at him. Yumi snickered from her seat, muffling it with her hand.

"Can I take that as a yes?" Odd asked with the most Odd smile he had in him.

"No."

Ulrich burst out laughing; well, until Gabby turned her glare on him. "Er, sorry," he said, still chuckling. "I'm Ulrich Stern, another of Aelita's friends."

"And I'm Jeremie Belpois," Jeremie added with a kind smile. "Welcome to Kadic."

"Yumi Ishiyama," Yumi introduced.

"Why not?" Odd interrupted.

"Because you're a jerk," Gabby replied simply before turning to Ulrich and Jeremie. "I'm Gabby Bursley."

"It's nice to meet you—" Ulrich started, but he didn't have the chance to continue.

"You can't call me a jerk!" Odd shouted, gripping his fork tightly as if he wished greatly to stick it into Gabby's hand. "You don't even know me!"

"Exactly," Gabby snapped, glaring at him prior to snatching up her muffin and storming out. Aelita sighed and joined them at the table.

"Now look what you did, Odd! I told you she said she wanted to be left alone. Do you know how hard I had to---"

"She _does _think she's too good for me!" Odd exclaimed angrily, ignoring Aelita's indignant scowl. "I mean, she hardly gave me a chance!"

"I don't think that's what she was trying to say, Odd..." Jeremie pointed out.

"I think she only said a total of, like, ten words!" Ulrich stated, laughing at Odd's furious expression. Yumi giggled.

"But she doesn't even know me! How can she say I'm a jerk? We've never even talked!"

"It probably had something to do with that glare you shot her in Biology yesterday," Aelita said matter-of-factly as she continued to glare at the purple-clothed kid.

"Probably," Jeremie agreed, watching Odd stab his waffle viciously. "But I don't think your up-front attitude helped much either."

"She probably thinks you're weird and annoying," Yumi put in with a smile.

"And the fact that that was the first time you've ever talked to her probably didn't impress her much," Ulrich added helpfully.

Odd glowered at his friends. "Thanks guys," he said sarcastically. "You really know how to help a guy out."

"I thought you had a date with Emily tonight anyway?" Aelita asked, suspicion rising in her face.

"I do."

"Not anymore!" Odd whipped around to see Emily standing right behind him. "I saw that! We're through!" She slapped him and stalked away with her head held high. Odd groaned.

"That girl is going to ruin me!" he cried, letting his head fall forward into his syrupy waffle tray.

~$*GABBY*$~

"I'm really sorry about Odd," Aelita apologized in the locker room as we changed for Phys Ed, which was unfortunately the first class of the day. "He's... um, well, he's used to ladies falling all over him; I think it shocked him that you didn't."

"Girls fall for _that_?" I asked acidly. But I wasn't mad at Aelita. No, I was upset with Odd. Though, admittedly I had hardly any reason to be. I didn't even really know him. Which, of course, was the biggest problem with him asking me out: if he was asking me out after only seeing me, he was only asking me out because of my looks. I hated only being asked out because I was pretty. And rich. FML.

Aelita laughed. "Yes, they do, though it usually doesn't last too long and ends with Odd getting slapped. You'd think he'd learn, but he never changes."

"That's unfortunate. He'd be cute if he wasn't a jerk," I admitted as I pulled on my t-shirt and a pair of baggy shorts over spandex. Like I said: I hate being liked because I'm pretty. Aelita gagged.

"I dunno. He's not that cute. I mean, he's okay, but..."

"You're just saying that because he's your friend and you have a boyfriend," I said knowledgably. Aelita smiled.

"Maybe." I gave her a you-know-I'm-right look, observing the fact that she was wearing a white t-shirt and short dark red shorts. "Come on, we've got class."

I nodded and followed her out to the gym, where our PE class would take place. I was disdained to see Aelita's friends standing in a group waiting for her. Aelita valiantly remained by my side, however, shooting Odd a scathing look. Odd, meanwhile, seemed intent on focusing his scathing looks on me. I glared at him.

"Okay, class," the Phys Ed teacher said loudly. "Today, we're going to play a simple game called... dodgeball. The rules are simple: dodge the ball. No headshots or you're out. Catch the ball, and you get a teammate back and the person who threw the ball is out. Della Robbia, Stern, you two are captains."

I scowled. Dodgeball. My least favorite game.

"Okay! Me first, Ulrich!"

"Whatever, Odd."

Odd chose a short kid with black hair, and then Ulrich chose a girl name Eva with her red curls pulled back from her face. They went on choosing, and I edged back silently, hoping not to be seen. Aelita was summoned to be on Odd's team, then Jeremie on Ulrich's, then Sissi on Odd's, then...

"Gabby."

"Gabby? Who's—Oh, right, the new girl. Miss Bursley, right? Well, I'm Jim Morales, but you should just call me Jim. Welcome to Kadic." I nodded and thanked him, trudging to Ulrich's team's side of the gym.

"Hey, Gabby," Jeremie greeted as I joined him behind the rest of the team. I nodded to him to acknowledge the greeting. "Don't like dodgeball either?"

I shook my head. "In fifth grade, I tried to catch a ball that one of the guys threw, and it broke my finger."

"That sounds like a good reason to hate it to me," Jeremie replied, his eyebrows raised in what I assumed was alarm. I smiled.

"Me too."

"So how's rooming with Aelita going?" he asked after a few seconds silence.

I shrugged. "Good. She's a nice girl."

"Yeah. She's great." He looked across the gym at the pink-haired girl in question, who was still glowering at Odd. "Sorry about Odd this morning. That's actually the way he always is..."

"Really? That's terrible." Jeremie laughed.

"Okay, now that we're in teams, let's play!"

And so the game began. Everyone darted for the balls, but Jeremie and I hung back, along with a few others. Odd was almost like a cat, the way that he dodged the first line of fire. Ulrich and Aelita dodged almost as well. Quite a few people were hit during the first barrage before they could retreat, but most were able to get away unscathed. And then chaos ensued.

I was suddenly hit by the image of a battlefield, cannons firing cannonballs across the field to hit the soldiers on the other side. Explosions, fire, the works. People dodging to avoid being killed, and the wounded limping from the field with sorrowful expression on their faces. And then that faded as a red dodgeball flew towards me. I easily evaded it, my eyes attracted to the one who'd thrown it. Odd grinned at me as he jumped over a ball that was aimed at his feet. I would have thought that he had randomly thrown it my direction had another one not soared my way a minute later. I glared at him as I dodged the second ball. What the hell was his problem?

Things were becoming a bit more violent in the other portions of the gym. Sissi was nursing a likely bruised shoulder, Eva a twisted ankle; Aelita had nailed Jeremie in the gut with a ball, only to be hit with one by a boy named Nicholas. I was really getting annoyed with Odd, who would not aim at anyone else. If this was his way of saying he still wanted a date with me, he had to be more messed up than I was. I was dodging pretty well, but he seemed to be getting frustrated; he was throwing the balls harder and harder. One whistled past my ear, hitting the wall behind me with a terrifyingly loud _thud_. I snatched it up, finished messing around. If Odd was going to be a jerk about it, well... I was too! I straightened up—

And was hit solidly in the face with a ball. It rebounded and was picked up by someone else. For a second, I saw spots and I vaguely felt a hot liquid running from my nostrils. But now I was infuriated.

"Oops..." Odd called, but his tone implied that he wasn't sorry at all. I looked down at the ball that I'd grabbed, and then up at Odd. The spots were gone; I could see him clearly as I threw the ball as hard as I could at him. It hit him... well, let's just say, I hope he didn't plan on having children. Odd groaned loudly and fell to the ground.

Did I mention I have a bit of a temper?

"Oops," I said smartly, though the warm blood flowing from my nose rather impeded the sarcasm.

"Della Robbia, Bursley, you're both out. Bursley, you might want to head to the infirmary. Stones, escort her there. Della Robbia... well, suck it up, I don't think there's much Nurse Perraudin can do for you." Aelita hurried over to me, taking care to avoid the blood. I heard Odd moaning as she lead me from the gym.

~$**$~

"There, that's better. Dodgeball... it's such a retched game," Nurse Yolande Perraudin told me as she gave me a rag to wipe the blood off my face. "I'll have kids in here for bruises later on. I even told Jim..." she trailed off with a scowl. Then she sighed. "Well, the bleeding's stopped, so I suppose you can go. Now you know where to find me, come visit anytime you need to. Hopefully, the rest of your days at Kadic won't be quite as exciting."

"Hopefully," I laughed. "Thank you, Nurse Perraudin. It was nice meeting you."

She smiled at me and waved as I left. I walked slowly back to the locker room, wanting to change from my bloody Phys Ed clothes to my jeans and half-sweatshirt (it covered all of my torso, but none of my arms; that's why I also wore a long-sleeved white shirt underneath).

"Oh, there you are!" Aelita exclaimed when I walked in. "Are you okay?"

"Well, my nose isn't broken, and it isn't bleeding anymore, though the nurse says I'm gonna have a bad bruise later; so I suppose that, yes, I am okay. Not great, but okay."

"That's good. I think... you sure hit Odd good, though. I think he was actually crying, and he was bemoaning the fate of his 'manhood' when I got back. I made sure he knew that he deserved it."

"Good. 'Cause he did."

But whether he did or not was beside the question. The fact was that hitting Odd where I did with the dodgeball did what my angry looks and snarky words could not: infuriated Odd enough that, now, he teased and insulted me, glared at me, and basically sent me physical rays of hate and anger. And I did exactly the same to him; mostly because I don't particularly like bloody noses. And because he was a stupid asshole.

I was immensely relieved when it came time for bed. Between talking all night with Aelita and focusing so hard on sending Odd my hatred, I was completely wiped. I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.

~$**$~

I was surrounded by white: all around me was pure white. Like being in a room with blinding white walls, floors, and ceilings, but different because there were no walls, floors, and ceilings. No, it was more like being encased in a giant glowing ball of bright white light. And it was weird. And, standing a few steps away from me, hands in his pockets and a big smile on his face, was _him_. But...

It couldn't be him. No, it was impossible. After all, since when did people come back to life? It had to be a dream.

But my father looked so real... I could hardly force myself to believe that he wasn't. Because he couldn't be. But then he spoke, and it erased all thoughts of reality from my mind.

"There's my dear girl!" he said, striding forward as easily as if he'd been standing on solid ground instead of weird lights. I stayed where I was, afraid that if I moved, this dream world would shatter. He reached me and pulled me to him, pressing my face into his chest and hiding my shocked expression. He felt so soft and warm, so... _real_. What was going on here? My dreams were never this realistic and yet surreal, and I certainly never thought that those dreams were dreams. But this one did. My dream-father smiled down at me as we pulled apart slightly. "My dear girl, my little princess, it's been so long! I've missed you so much!" He kissed the top of my head lightly.

I was struck by the way he took the words right out of my mouth. Because it had been so long, and I did miss him so much. I was still consciously aware of his warmth, and increasingly aware of the fact that he was dead, and horribly aware that this dream was much too realistic for my own good. Maybe I was finally cracking under the pressure and the grief.

He ran a hand through my long orange hair and sighed. "Look what I've done to you. You had such a gorgeous head of golden hair. But... I suppose this new color has its charms."

I stared at him. What kind of dream was this? My own father insulting my bright orange hair: brilliant. It was exactly what he would have done but had never had to do before he died.

"You don't think I'm real?" he asked, a knowing smile on his face. I slowly shook my head and his smile got wider. "My dear princess, how can I prove it to you?"

I sighed and looked down at our feet and past them into the light. "I don't know. I suppose you'd have to... tell me something I don't know. I mean, you can't dream about something you've never known."

"I see..." he said thoughtfully. "Well then, how about this: peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite."

I stared at him. "Well... I certainly didn't know that... That was a little random, Daddy."

"That's what I was aiming for. Now, I have something important to tell you, Gabrielle." His face had become very serious all of a sudden, and now that I knew he was real, I worried about what he would tell me. "I know that you won't believe me, but what I'm going to tell you is true. I'm not dead." Seeing my dumbfounded expression, he continued. "During the plane ride to London, I was sucked into my computer, and then downloaded as a file to the Internet. I don't understand it, but it's the truth, Gabby, do you understand?" I slowly nodded, though I still wasn't sure that I fully believed him, as much as I wanted to believe that he wasn't dead. "I'm trapped in the Internet, but there's a way that you can free me. Once I'm free, I can come back to live with you and your mom, we can go back to the way it used to be."

I saw that pretty house in the hills of Montana. I wanted to go back, I really did. I wanted my Daddy back too. I was tired of being depressed all the time and of being by myself. I wanted my dad and my mom and my old friends back. "Okay," I said, looking up into my father's amber eyes. "What do I need to do?"

Daddy smiled at me proudly. "Excellent. I need you to follow these directions exactly, do exactly as I tell you to. While no one's looking..."


	3. Reawakening

((A/N: Greetings. Success! Again!! Chapter 3! Thanks to Lyoko-MiNts, William's Fight for Yumi, peter van pickle, and JokerAlchemist24 for the reviews! They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside! So please feel free to review, and give me the joy of knowing exactly what you think of my story!))

**((Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is awesome, but I certainly don't own it.))**

Chapter 3: Reawakening

_"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."—Reinhold Niebuhr_

I awoke feeling refreshed and wide-awake, which was strange, because it was only 2:30 in the morning, and I'd only slept for about four hours. I sighed deeply, thinking back to the dream I'd just had. Or rather, the not-dream. Because I now felt certain that what I'd seen was real, and I had every intention of doing exactly what my Daddy had told me too.

Silently, so as not to wake Aelita, I slipped out of my bed and pulled on my jacket. If my father was to be believed, it wouldn't take too long. Without a word, I crept from our dorm room in my pajamas and down the hall to the stairs. I saw no one, fortunately, and easily made my way to the park, watching the ground carefully for the manhole that my father had told me about. It was rather easy to locate, and when I did, I struggled to remove the heavy metal cover. Panting, I climbed down the ladder into the dark sewers.

Looking around, I saw two scooters and three skateboards leaning against the grimy walls, looking old and forlorn. I ignored the rusty scooters and skateboards and just walked down the sewer path, following the path exactly that Daddy had told me to take, though once or twice I almost fell into the dirty water, and I did get lost once. Finally, I reached another ladder, climbing up it and emerging into the fresh air above. I breathed it in deeply for a minute, taking in my surroundings. I was standing at the end of a long bridge that led into a big factory. I went inside, sliding gracefully down one of the ropes that I found near the entrance and landing on the floor with a soft patter. I went directly across from where I landed to the elevator, punching in the access code Daddy had told me. A minute later, I'd gone all the way down. The elevator doors opened to a large, bare room, and the lights came on as I stepped out. However, a split second after the lights came on, the floor started glowing, suddenly opening in front of my feet.

I gasped and took a step back as something big came out of the ground. It was a dark metal contraption, obviously very techy. I wouldn't have known what to do with it if my father hadn't told me. Even as I approached it, a small slot opened, revealing a lever. I stepped forward and gripped it, hesitating only momentarily before I pulled it up. Then I turned around and went back to Kadic, returning to my bed and to my sleep.

~$**$~

It was almost easy for me to slip into a routine as the week passed. Almost.

I say almost because Aelita's friends, now with Odd as the exception, seemed awfully persistent about having me as a part of their group. They even managed to drag me off campus for a while, to some movie and a snack stop. Odd continued to be exceedingly mean to me, and I did the same to him; I still had no idea why he was so upset with me in the first place (and I mean before I nailed him with that dodgeball). Ulrich and Jeremie, sometimes joined by Aelita and Yumi, insisted that I eat my meals with them, though when I did Odd was sure to be extra insulting.

But I tried to be alone as much as possible. When I got the chance, I snuck off to the factory to see if anything had happened since I'd started up what I'd figured out was a giant computer. But nothing ever did. No Daddy, no signs, no nothing. Daddy told me, when I was sleeping, that I needed to be patient. A lot of files had been erased when the computer had been shut down, and he needed time to restore them. He said that the time was coming when he would need my help again, but he refused to say how or why.

When I wasn't at the factory, I frequented the library, which I had noticed that Odd didn't usually use, though I did see Jeremie and Aelita in there a bit. I had a sneaking suspicion that they weren't using the books, but I certainly didn't explore the matter further. If I wasn't in the library, I was in my dorm room, and if I wasn't in my dorm room, I was in the park. My father had instilled in me a great value of exercise: running, abs, you name it. He'd always kept me in shape, and I was gaining weight because I hadn't had a good exercise since he'd died. I mean, uh, been sucked into a computer. Or whatever. In any case, I spent time running the paths in the small park on Kadic's campus, sometimes using the track as well. Anyways, I needed something to do in order to avoid the gang.

It wasn't until the end of the week that something happened that I wasn't prepared for.

~$**$~

"I don't get it," I told Aelita glumly as she reclined in her desk chair. "Why does y equal two-thousand thirty-six?"

"Because you have to divide by pi after you subtract the angle of rotation."

"But why?" I asked, leaning back in my own chair while I rested my bare feet on my bed.

Aelita laughed. "Weren't you listening? Ms. Hertz explained it in class."

"Well, yeah, but I was busy drawing Odd dying in gruesome ways."

"Well, if you want to be mean and spiteful, that's your fault, isn't it?" she said, though she was smiling in amusement. She proceeded to explain my physics problem to me, then said, "I really think you ought to come with us tonight; it'll be fun."

I shook my head at my notebook. "No, it won't. And besides," I reminded her, waving my notebook her way, "I've got, like, three sections to learn so I can catch up to you Kadic kids. I'm way behind." Aelita looked disappointed so I added a small, "Maybe next time," to cheer her up. She sighed and shrugged, spinning her chair around to look at her closet.

"Hmm... Let's see. Which clothes should I wear?"

"Oh, please don't involve me in this, please? It always reminds me of when I had to go to fancy parties dressed in those big poofy gowns. And besides, I'm not that great with fashion. Maybe you should have Jeremie help you pick," I said smugly, grinning at Aelita's back.

"Hey! You know, if I let Jeremie pick, how will he think it's effortless being beautiful? Besides, you're fashion sense is just fine! So maybe that shade of green doesn't exactly flatter your orange hair..."

"That's kind of the point," I muttered under my breath; luckily, Aelita didn't hear me. She was busy pulling outfits out of her closet.

"What do you think of this one?"

"Too slutty."

"This?"

"Too stuffy. It's warm tonight."

"How about this?" She held out a short, light pink shirt with spaghetti straps and two black lines that crisscrossed right under the bust, and a black miniskirt. I looked at them thoughtfully, then nodded.

"That's it. Though you should wear some spandex or something under that skirt, it's awfully short." Aelita nodded.

"Black boots or pink?"

"Uh, oh, hell, go black. It's sexier."

Within minutes (during which I was doing my homework, of course!), Aelita was changed, definitely looking ready to go dancing with her friends. I whistled and she rolled her eyes at me.

"You can still come, you know. I bet the others would like it."

I shook my head again. "And I would like to finish my homework. Not all of us are geniuses, Aelita."

"Okay, okay. But that means I have to listen to Odd picking up girls all night," she said mournfully. I gave her a skeptical look.

"What, you'd rather hear me and him arguing instead?"

"Yes," she answered immediately, folding her arms stubbornly. "And I know you'd have fun, even though you'd be snapping at Odd the whole time. You should—"

"Aelita!"

"Right then, Gabby," she said with a pout, "I'll see you when we get back then..."

"Don't stay out too late," I said jokingly as she headed out the door. I considered following her: not to dance, but just to go for a nice walk. But, no. I really was behind the Kadic students in Physics, and in Pre-Calculus and English and my languages too. I had a lot of work to do to catch up, so instead of taking a break, I turned back to my Physics book, already getting a headache.

~$*ODD*$~

Odd tapped his yellow-orange dancing shoes on the pavement impatiently as he waited for the rest of the group to show up. He was always the first one there, no matter what. It was something that had changed since eighth grade. But it was getting old. Maybe he'd try being late again. He was getting tired of having to wait for his friends all the time.

Speaking of his friends, they were coming towards him now, all looking wonderfully trendy in their dancing clothes.

"It's about time," he said as they reached him, scowling at the two couples. "You guys were all probably making out somewhere, huh?"

Ulrich and Yumi snickered. "What's wrong, Odd? Jealous?" Ulrich teased. Odd blushed.

"No! I just get tired of waiting for you while you're all off making out."

"I think you ought to find a nice girl and settle down, Odd," Yumi said, laughing. "Then you wouldn't have to wait around for us because you'd be making out with someone too!"

"Oh, so you admit, then."

"You know, if you weren't so mean to her—" Aelita started, but Odd knew what she was going to say.

"Don't even talk to me about _Gabby_, I—"

"You like her, though! And if you stopped being so rude—"

"No! I don't like her! Besides, there are plenty of girls in the world, I don't need _Gabby_. Now let's go!" He ignored the exasperated looks that he received and marched proudly down the street. His friends all sighed and shook their heads.

~$*AELITA*$~

"Do you think they'll ever get together?" Aelita asked Jeremie half an hour later. They were dancing to a slow song, their bodies pressed close together as they whirled around the floor.

"Odd and Gabby?" Jeremie looked around at Odd thoughtfully. Odd was currently dancing with a blonde girl in a green dress; they were also very close, and Odd seemed to be whispering things in her ear, probably flirting. Aelita frowned at them disapprovingly. "I don't know. If they do, I don't know how long they'll last. It would probably be just the same as all the rest of Odd's 'relationships.' And anyways, Gabby and Odd are both so stubborn, they'd never admit to liking each other."

"Yeah. It would be nice though. Gabby's a great girl. I think they'd be cute together." Aelita smiled happily at the thought of Odd and Gabby together. Then her smile fell. "But you're probably right. They are both extremely stubborn..."

"Exactly. We should stay out of it; Aelita, if they want to be together, they'll get together on their own."

"I guess..."

"Aelita!"

"All right, all right, I'll stay out of it. Jeez, Jeremie, it's not like it's dangerous."

"Yeah, but—hey, do you hear that?"

"Hmm?" Aelita asked as they stopped dancing. Now that he mentioned it, she could hear a faint buzzing noise. Other people were starting to notice it too, and soon everyone was looking around for the source. Yumi and Ulrich joined Aelita and Jeremie.

"What do you think that is?" Yumi asked, but she needn't have bothered. Even as she spoke, sparks erupted near the DJ. There were screams and the crowd stepped back as one.

"A malfunction?" Jeremie wondered aloud. He looked at the other four.

"I didn't think malfunctions did that!" Yumi said, pointed to the ceiling.

The cords were writhing like snakes, all lights were turning to the gang, and the DJ was running, screaming, as his setup (for some reason built in a robot theme) came to life around him.

"But—but it's impossible!" Jeremie stuttered, staring at the monster.

"Obviously not," Ulrich said, "as it's the only explanation! Hey, move!" he shouted as the monster lunged toward Jeremie and Aelita. They screamed, but Odd got there just in time to throw all three of them to the ground.

"It's a good thing I'm always on time now, or you two would be pancakes right now!"

"Thank you, Odd," Aelita said as Jeremie and Odd helped her up.

"We've got to get out of here," Yumi said wisely as the monster recovered from its miss and turned towards the group again. "It's obvious that this thing's after us, and whether its X.A.N.A. or not, I'd rather not die!"

The other four nodded and they sprinted out of the club as one.

"We have to get to the factory!" Jeremie yelled as they ran. "If it is X.A.N.A., we know how to stop it!"

"Definitely!" Ulrich shouted. "But what about that thing? It'll follow us to the lab!"

"I'll distract it!" Odd panted. "You guys just get to the factory and stop this thing!" With that he turned a corner opposite the rest of the gang. The robot-monster didn't follow him.

"Oh no!" Aelita yelled. "It's still chasing us!"

"What do we do now?" Yumi cried. "It's gaining on us!"

"Hey! Big, bulky, and stupid!"

There was the sound of something hitting the metallic robot behind the group. Aelita glanced over her shoulder and saw Odd standing on a garden wall with a big rock in his hand.

"Hya!" He screamed as he hurled the second rock at the monster. With a groan of sorts, the robot turned to face Odd instead, giving the rest of the group the chance to escape.

"We have to hurry," Aelita gasped, "before Odd gets hurt!"

"What'll we do if X.A.N.A.'s not behind this?" Ulrich wheezed when they finally reached the factory.

"Damn these heels," Yumi muttered under her breath, leaning down to rub her ankles. "We'll just have to hope for the best. We'll know as soon as we get down there."

Together, the four got into elevator, Jeremie entered the access code, and the elevator started its descent.

"It's impossible. X.A.N.A. can't be back," Jeremie kept muttering under his breath. Everyone got off at the level of the supercomputer. "Okay, let's see..." Jeremie sauntered over to the monitors, but it was obvious. The supercomputer was up and running: the scaled model of Lyoko in the center of the room proved that much. "But... it's impossible. How could it be on? We all saw it..." Everyone jumped when his cell phone started ringing. "Uh, hello?"

"Hey, I hope you guys are hurrying, because I don't know how much longer I can run!" The group heard Odd's voice screaming clearly from the mobile. "I could use some help!"

"Right, we're on it, Odd. The supercomputer's on, so I'm sending them in. Guys, head down to the scanners."

Aelita nodded frantically, and Ulrich and Yumi mimicked her. They backtracked into the elevator, jamming the button. When it opened on the scanner room, each quickly got into one of the three metal tubes.

"All right. Transfer Ulrich. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Aelita. Virtualization!" There was a flash of light and a gust of wind in Aelita's scanner, and then she was appearing in Lyoko. She dropped to the ground, landing on her but painfully. Next to her, there were two identical _thud_s.

"Damn, I forgot how high that was," Ulrich muttered, rubbing his rear end. "It's been a while..."

"But Lyoko still looks the same as ever," Yumi said, looking around the forest sector. "Hey, why are we in our old outfits?"

Aelita and Ulrich shrugged, looking down at their own clothes. Yumi was dressed in her old Kimono-Japanese outfit, Ulrich in his samurai outfit, and Aelita in her original outlandish outfit.

"Jeremie, are you there?" Aelita called.

"Yeah, but we were in such a hurry, I forgot to launch the scan! Do you see anything weird?" Jeremie sounded panicked, but as they could no longer see him, tone was all that they had to go off of.

Aelita pointed at the ground. "X.A.N.A.'s pulsations. They can guide us there." Without another word, she set off, Ulrich and Yumi right behind her.

~$*GABBY*$~

I grimaced with my eyes closed. The painful light was grating against my closed eyelids, blinding me with red. Was it morning already? What time was it? I wondered if I could get away with skipping breakfast. I must have fallen asleep while reading my physics chapter. And where was Aelita? She was what had dragged me out of bed every day this week. What was to stop me from sleeping in until noon if she didn't?

"Ugh," I groaned. The light was bothering me. Were the curtains open? It was so bright... I should check. I was on an upper floor, but it was weird to think that people outside might be able to see me sleep. Finally, after about ten minutes of lying there wishing I were telekinetic and could close the curtains using my mind, I opened my eyes.

Oh fuck.

I closed my eyes again. I reached down and pinched my arm, only to find that it really hurt. Meaning I wasn't dreaming. I really was in a desert and not in my room. Maybe if I lay here a little longer, I would find myself in my bed, or at least in my desk chair. But I got the feeling that, wherever I was, I was being watched. So I opened one eye again, sitting up to better observe my surroundings. The light was still blinding me, but not enough to keep me from seeing the red-orange sand, the sharp drops to nothing, the wide open light orange sky, and my father looking down at me with one eyebrow raised.

"My princess... what are you doing still laying on the ground? I brought you here twenty minutes ago."

"Brought me... where?" I asked as he extended a hand to help me up. I took it and he pulled me to my feet. Daddy smiled.

"A virtual world called Lyoko. You remember that I said I would need your help again?" I nodded.

"But how does bringing me into a virtual world help you? Won't this just trap me in a computer too?"

"No. I can see how you might think that, but I brought you here and I can easily send you back. Besides, it's only your mind that's here; your body is still in your dorm room, unconscious." He suddenly frowned. "You haven't taken the opportunity to look at yourself," he said, stepping back and looking me up and down. "You need to discover your weapons so that you can fight when they get here."

I stared at him, suddenly noticing that he wasn't in his usual suit. Instead, he was wearing tight leather pants and some black boots, with two pistols at his waist, and no shirt to show off his finely chiseled muscles. He pointed down suddenly.

"Well, look at yourself."

I looked down at my own clothes and gasped, because I was in a suit a lot like his: tight leather pants, black boots, and a blank tank that dove low enough to show a little cleavage. I also had on fingerless gloves that went up to my elbows. I even had a gun at my waist.

I looked back at my dad. "Why are we dressed like this?"

He ignored my question, looking at my gun with a furrowed brow. "I think you'd better practice with that. Unless you've used a gun?" he asked with an amused smile.

"M-me?" I stuttered. This whole thing seemed to be getting weirder by the minute. Now he expected me to fight? "Use a gun? Daddy, you know I'd never use a gun! All I need is my good looks and my charm—"

"If you don't use your gun, you'll be useless."

I gaped at him. He'd never said anything like that before... obviously, the situation was serious. He wouldn't have said something like that otherwise. "I'm sure that I—I can use it just fine. But maybe a few practice shots?"

He nodded and pointed at an odd rock formation not far away. "Aim for that, and we'll see how it goes."

I nodded too and aimed my weapon at the rocks, closing my left eye and pulling the trigger. The recoil scared me, but the resulting explosion scared me even more. I looked at my gun and realized that there was a switch on it. It was currently set to "BOMB." The other option was "BULLET." Huh, that would have been helpful to know five seconds ago. Daddy looked pleased, though, so I just shrugged it off.

"That was brilliant, my dear girl," he praised, pulling me into a hug. "Wonderful! Now listen to me, Gabrielle," he said seriously, drawing back and holding me by the shoulders while he looked into my eyes. "It is important that you do the best you can to stop the people who are coming. Do you see that tower over there?" he asked, pointing to a white tower that was currently glowing deep red. I nodded. "It is important, vital to our goals, that that tower stay red. But the people who are coming are going to try to turn it blue-green, to turn it off. I need you to hold them off as long as you can, so that I can be materialized outside of this computer. Do you understand?"

I bit my lip. "That red tower's going to help you?" He smiled and nodded.

"Have I ever lied to you, my Gabrielle?"

He hadn't. But I still got a weird feeling about that red glow. I suppose that, if it was going to help Daddy get free, I would keep these people away, but the feeling didn't go away.

"Okay. I'll do what I can."

"That's my girl." He kissed my forehead and turned to walk toward the tower. He'd taken one step, however, when he came to a stop. "And, Gabby, I want you to stay away from the computer now. We're done with it. And don't hold back, my dear girl, even if the people are people you think you know." I blinked in confusion, about to ask him what he was talking about, but he was already running towards the tower, and within a minute, he was gone.

Sighing, I turned to face the distant horizon and sat down.

~$**$~

Where were these people, I thought dully. I was so sick of sitting here. It had to have been about an hour since my dad had disappeared. Was he having troubles in the red tower? Maybe something had gone terribly wrong. What if he was dead? Really dead this time? I stood up, about to run to the tower to check when I saw movement.

The people had finally come. I started to walk that way instead. After all, my father had told me what he needed from me. But I froze as soon as I could make the people out.

Yumi and Aelita were flat out sprinting my way. Was this real? Or had I finally gone crazy? Yumi and Aelita were out dancing with the guys. They couldn't be here! What if, I cogitated, I shot the two with my gun and they really _died_? I didn't want to be responsible for murder! And if I recognized them, they'd be sure to recognize me, if they hadn't already. My dad had told me what to do, but he had forgotten to mention that my new friends were "the people" who were trying to stop us. I couldn't attack them!

Aelita and Yumi had slowed to a stop, looking at me nervously, and I noticed the crazy outfits they were wearing. What was with the weird clothes in the virtual world? They seemed to be discussing something. And then Yumi pulled out two fans and they started running at me again.

"Yaaagh!" Yumi screamed when they were about fifty feet away, hurling one fan at me as if it were a Frisbee. I jumped to the side, but it still cut across my left arm. I gasped at the pain, but looking at the place of impact I saw that there was no cut, no blood, just some electricity and the pain. I looked up again, just in time to dodge the second fan. Why were Yumi and Aelita attacking me?

Oh, wait, they were my enemies in this world... right. I pulled out the gun and flipped it to "BULLET;" if I was going to shoot them, I at least wasn't going to blow them up. I took aim at Yumi, as she was the one who was attacking me, and I pulled the trigger. Yumi staggered backwards a step as the bullet hit her, clutching her arm, but, like me, she didn't seem to be extremely hurt. In fact, she recovered from the pain quite quickly, pushing Aelita behind a rock as I took aim again, but not quick enough. The bullet hit Aelita in the leg, and she collapsed behind the rock, out of view. I heard something behind me and stupidly looked around.

A swarm of the ugliest and biggest hornets I'd ever seen flew past me, within inches, obviously after the other two and not me.

I felt a splitting pain in my thigh, and I knew without looking that Yumi had hit me again. Turning back to her, I shot again without looking, and I was surprised to see it make contact. But now the hornets were attacking her, and it seemed... indecent, I suppose, to attack her while she was distracted.

A second later, something hit me in the back, enveloping me in a pinkish red electric field and knocking me forward, but I didn't hit the ground.

I sat bolt upright in my chair, gasping in pain while my skin tingled painfully with shock and my arm and leg throbbed. After about five seconds, the tingling went away, but my thigh and arm continued to hurt. Looking at my arm, I realized that I was bleeding, red staining my white shirt. I shuddered when I figured out why.

Any damage I took in this Lyoko translated to my body on Earth.

~$*ODD*$~

Odd was panting, trying vainly to get air into his lungs. He couldn't run anymore; he didn't have the energy, or the breath. If his brain didn't get oxygen, he was going to pass out, and then the robot wouldn't have much trouble getting rid of him. He slowed and turned around, still gasping for air. There it was, big and ugly, X.A.N.A.'s mark burning on the screen where music videos usually played.

"Okay, big guy, I'm done running. Let's see what you can do."

The robot, meanwhile, didn't stop. It continued stomping towards Odd, who grew slightly nervous as it approached. This was stupid, he didn't have a weapon, and this robot-monster was going to kill him. Now the monster was right in front of him, reaching down to grab him. With a yell, he dove between its legs, sliding on his belly and jumping right to his feet as he emerged on the other side.

"Yeah! Ha-ha! Can't get me, can—Whoa!" he cried as a cord snaked around his ankle and lifted him into the air. "You stupid robot, you're ruining my night out! I only get a few nights off campus a month, and you're ruining it! Put—me—down!" he yelled, kicking at the cords to no avail. All he managed to do was make it angry. How could he tell? Because it tossed him into the air. He fell to the ground, miraculously not breaking anything, or at least not anything that he could tell. But he was now lying on the ground, face down, in a very vulnerable way. He wished dearly he had a weapon of some sort, or that he was in good enough shape to run again. But it was too late for that. He had no way to defend himself as the giant metal foot came down at him from the seemingly the sky itself. It was over. He was going to die.

He let out one last yell and covered his head with his hands, closing his eyes tightly against the sight of the foot, waiting for it to crush him into the ground.

But it didn't. After about a minute, he dared to open his eyes.

The foot was resting less than an inch above his protecting arms, still looking ominous as it hung over him. He quickly crawled out from under it and let out a sigh of relief.

"Nice job, guys," he said. "Knew I could count on you."


	4. Confusion

((A/N: Hiya!! Here is chapter 4!! Once again, thanks to those who reviewed: William's fight for Yumi, JokerAlchemist24, Moonlitdaze, peter van pickle, and elly755! I can't tell you all how much I appreciate reviews!! So if you like to make authors happy, REVIEW!!!))

**((Disclaimer: If I owned Code Lyoko, this wouldn't be a **_**fan**_**fiction.))**

**EDIT: Thanks to Lyoko-MiNts for letting me know my first bunch of words was all scrunched up.... I'm not sure how that happened, but it's fixed now. :D**

Chapter 4: Confusion

"_Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung."—John Milton_

"But this—this goes against all the odds. No pun intended," Jeremie added before Odd could turn the phrase into a joke. "How could X.A.N.A. be back? We all saw that the super computer was shut down. It's not possible!"

They were all standing in the lab, looking at the supercomputer with fearful expressions. It was nearly four in the morning, and they should have been in bed by now, but they had important things to discuss.

"Obviously, it is, Einstein, or I wouldn't have been almost crushed by a giant robot," Odd said, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. "What could it be other than X.A.N.A.? It stopped as soon as Aelita entered the code, and I don't know any other evil computer viruses, do you?"

"Jeremie, it's the only explanation," Aelita said calmly. "X.A.N.A.'s back, regardless of how he did it."

"I just don't understand how this could have happened. We all saw it turned off. Who would have turned it back on?"

"Well," Odd said, thinking hard, "you said you guys thought you saw Gabby in there—"

"No!" Aelita gasped. "Gabby? How would she have found it? How would she have known how to turn it on?"

"I don't know, but it sure seems suspicious. How do we know it wasn't her?"

"I think it's more likely that X.A.N.A. created a copy of her on Lyoko because he wanted to turn us against each other," Yumi put in, looking between Odd and Aelita. "To confuse us."

"Hey, yeah, that makes sense," Ulrich said, nodding. "We'll be so busy arguing over whether or not she's real that X.A.N.A. will be able to get away with anything."

"Well, there's only one way to prove it, huh, just go see if she's in bed," Odd said with a shrug. "If she was in Lyoko, she must have got there through the scanners, and if she's in her room, she couldn't have been in the factory. Simple."

"Yeah, but there's one problem with that: it's been an hour since she got devirtualized, she could have gone straight back to the dorm by now," Aelita said factually.

"Right, but she'd still have to have come out of the scanners. Jeremie, can't you check the cameras to see if anyone came out of the scanners?"

Jeremie nodded, quickly typing something into the keyboard and bringing up a window that showed the scanner room. "Okay, there's Ulrich. If she came out, she'd come out between Ulrich and Yumi..." He let the video play, showing Ulrich stumbling out of one scanner, and then, ten minutes later... Yumi and Aelita stumbled out and to the elevator. "That's it. Unless she was invisible, Gabby didn't come out of the scanners. Which means that the one on Lyoko couldn't have been real. Yumi's right, it was probably just to trick us."

"I guess so..." Odd muttered, scowling at the fact. "Hey, so, why aren't you launching a return to the past?"

"Well, I can't find the program. I think that when we shut off the supercomputer, somehow, all of the files and programs that I put on it got deleted, though X.A.N.A. might have been behind that. The outfits, the vehicles, the materialization, and the return to the past are all gone. But I'm going to stay here and reprogram them, starting with the return to the past, and I'll launch it as soon as I can."

"I'll stay and help you," Aelita offered. "That way, it'll take half the time."

"Thanks, Aelita. You guys go and get some sleep. With any luck, we'll see you yesterday."

~$*GABBY*$~

"So tell me again how you got these cuts," Nurse Yolande asked as she wrapped my upper arm in gauze. I grimaced, wishing she wouldn't question me.

"I, uh, fell. In the park. Must have landed on a rock."

"And what on earth were you doing out so early in the morning? On a weekend day, too?"

Oh damn. She was seeing all my holes. What was I supposed to tell her? "I was... running. You know, exercising. I like to stay in shape..." S

he looked at me suspiciously, but she seemed to accept the excuse. She finished with my arm and moved to my leg. "Well, you need to be more careful. These cuts—"

"Right then, Gabby," Aelita said with a pout, "I'll see you when we get back then..."

"Don't stay out too late," I said jokingly as she headed out the dormitory door.

Whoa. What the hell just happened? I was sitting in my desk chair, my feet reclining on the edge of my bed. I looked at my alarm clock. 7:23 PM. But just a second ago, it had been 6:07 AM, and I'd been in the infirmary having my wounds bandaged. Speaking of my wounds, they were still there, whether I'd somehow gone back in time or not. Okay... so, whatever had just happened to me, I still needed to go to the infirmary and have Nurse Yolande look at the cuts. I slowly got to my feet, looking at the red that was starting to stain into my white shirt. Like Déjà vu. My leg hurt too, throbbing as I hobbled to the door and stepped outside. Aelita was gone, off to meet Jeremie and the others for their night out. Again. Still weird.

Okay, I thought, let's come up with an excuse before we get to the infirmary. We'll say... uh, well, I don't know! How about... I was attacked! In my dorm room... and I didn't know who did it. That was stupid. Even though it was kind of true, technically. I was running in the park and I was attacked. That was better. Attacked by... a wild cat? Maybe. I'd seen cats in there on my runs, though none had attacked me. It was certainly better than tripping and falling on a rock.

Obviously, though, I hadn't thought things through enough.

"It must have been a big cat," the nurse said with a skeptical look.

"Er, a little... it was vicious," I lied, wincing as she put some hydrogen peroxide on my leg.

"Clearly. These cuts are rather deep... for cat scratches."

"Really?"

"And no other student's ever been attacked by a cat on campus."

"Yeah... I'm not really a cat person, I guess," I said with an embarrassed smile. Actually, I was a cat person. And a dog person. Well, an animal person in general.

"I see."

She didn't ask any more questions, but she continued to glare at me doubtfully. She apparently didn't believe me, but as long as she didn't know what really happened, it didn't matter. She finished with my leg and turned to my arm.

"Well, Miss Bursley, I suggest you be more careful while you're out. This is the second time I've seen you this week, and I don't like seeing students in here."

"Of course," I nodded. "I'll try."

She finished up and sent me back to my dorm, arm and leg still hurting but at least not bleeding all over me now. I quickly changed, hiding my bloody jeans and shirt so that Aelita wouldn't see them, and gingerly sat back in my chair and picked up my Physics.

What? It wasn't as if I had anything better to do.

~$*ODD*$~

"Odd, can't you go find someone else to bother?" Aelita asked, scowling at Odd. He'd been hanging out with her and Jeremie since they'd arrived. "You seemed to like making out with that girl last time, maybe you should go get her again."

"Hmm... nah. I was just pretending to enjoy it. She kisses like a fish."

"Odd..." Jeremie sighed, giving his friend his version of Aelita's look.

"I'm sorry! You know, when you've already lived it, it's kind of boring the second time around."

"If you're so bored, why don't you go home?" Jeremie said in a low voice, still glaring at Odd.

"All right, all right," Odd muttered, rolling his eyes at the pair. "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone, then. I'll just go home... all by myself... alone..."

"Okay," Aelita and Jeremie answered simultaneously, taking each other's hand and heading for the floor.

"Thanks, guys, that's just great. I'm glad you care so much." Odd glowered after them, then turned and walked to the door. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Ulrich dancing with Yumi; he saw Aelita and Jeremie twirling slowly around the room as if the song were a waltz. And suddenly, Odd was hit by a wave of loneliness. And oddly enough, there was only one person he wanted to be with.

~$*GABBY*$~

It was nearly eleven o'clock, and I was stuck on my last Physics problem. I guess, having nearly finished it the last time I'd lived this night, the assignment was easier, but I couldn't figure out this stupid problem for the life of me. Who the hell cared about the rotational momentum of an eight-pound bowling ball rolling down the alley at nine meters per second? I kept getting about a hundred-thirty five joules per second, but I was positive that was much too large.

"What the hell!" I cried angrily, ready to give up as I kicked my desk, only injuring my poor toe in the process. "Son of a—"

"Having problems?"

I whirled around, nearly tripping over myself as I hopped on one foot holding the one I'd just maimed. I felt my face turning bright red as I saw Odd standing in the doorway, looking kind of hot in his casual dancing clothes and with that smug smile on his face. Not that I would admit that. Ever.

"What do you want, Odd?" I snapped, falling onto my bed and taking off my shoes to look at my toe. "And I thought you couldn't get any uglier. Where'd you get those clothes, Herb's closet?"

Odd continued to smile at me. "Please, as if _Herb_ could pull this off."

I rolled my eyes. He was a cocky jerk. "I thought you guys were out dancing or something?"

"Yeah, but I got bored."

"Figures."

Odd scowled at me. "What do you mean, 'Figures?'"

"I mean, you seem like the type to get bored easily."

"We aren't talking about dancing anymore, are we?"

"Go away."

"Tell me what you mean!"

"What do you want, Odd?" I repeated. He glared at me.

"I was just passing by and I heard you swearing; I thought I'd drop in and see who was doing my job."

"Fuck off."

"See, my job." He smirked. That just set me off. Before I fully realized what I was doing, my Physics book was in my hands and I was hitting Odd with it wherever I could reach. "Ouch, ow, hey! Okay, okay, I'm going!" he cried as he retreated from the room.

"Leave me _alone_!" I yelled, slamming the door shut behind him. The sudden silence was warm around me. But for some reason, I felt completely alone. My leg throbbed as I forsook my Physics homework and collapsed onto my violet bedspread. "Ugh, what's _wrong_ with me?" I asked myself. But I didn't have an answer.

~$**$~

"Why do you two have to fight all the time?" Aelita asked me the next day over lunch (we'd slept in too late for breakfast). I'd told her about Odd's and my conversation the night before, but I might as well have been talking to a rock, for all the sympathy I received. Instead, she just giggled and rolled her eyes.

"It's not my fault! He's the one who... well, it might have been partially my fault. But he," I rolled my eyes upward and flexed my fingers furiously, "makes me so angry!"

"I can see why," Aelita said, laughing some more. "Odd and I have had our spats in the past too. Like when I got in trouble for lying because he was selfish and wanted to sleep in. It's almost the same story every time. But Odd's a great friend, really."

"He takes some getting used to; I thought he was annoying when he first became my roommate, but now we get along great. Most of the time," Ulrich added as an afterthought. "In fact, you should just be happy you _don't_ have to share a room with him."

"I don't think there'd be a room left to share," Aelita laughed. "They'd probably have it destroyed within minutes."

"Probably," Jeremie affirmed before taking a bite of his Shepard's Pie. "Where is Odd anyway?"

"With Lily," Ulrich answered.

"Who's Lily?" I asked, already feeling I knew the answer.

"His new girlfriend," Ulrich replied.

"New?"

"Yes. Emily broke up with him on Tuesday because he asked you out," Aelita clarified with an eyebrow raised at my disgusted look.

"Wow," I said dryly. "No way."

"He has a history of being a bit of a player," Jeremie added.

"I never would have figured," I stated sarcastically. They laughed.

"There he is," Aelita said suddenly, pointing at the cafeteria doors. Indeed, Odd had just entered, one girl on his left arm, another chatting animatedly on his right.

"Which one's Lily?" I asked finally, after watching the trio made their way to the lunch line.

"Neither of them," Jeremie answered.

"You're kidding me," I said stupidly, staring at Odd like an idiot. Aelita shook her head.

"Actually, _that's_ Lily." She pointed to a redhead who had just entered, not looking at all dismayed at the sight of Odd with two other girls. "That's odd..."

"What she means is," Ulrich continued for Aelita, "that it's weird for Odd to drop girls that fast. Usually he dates them for at least a couple weeks. And they don't look so happy afterwards." By this time, Odd and his new new girlfriends had made it to the front of the line, and he waved goodbye to them as he came over to join us.

"Hey guys! Is the Shepard's Pie as good as it was last time?" he asked happily, sitting down on Aelita's other side.

"What happened to Lily?" Aelita inquired nonchalantly, ignoring Odd's question and taking a bite of her pie.

"Huh?" He looked confused for a second before understanding reached him. "Oh, we mutually agreed that we just weren't right together. And then I saw Jasmine and Jessie outside, and... well, you know."

"Not really," Ulrich answered for all of us, "but we can assume." Odd just smiled, shooting me a smug glance and then starting on his pie.

"Can we talk about something that _doesn't _make me want to throw up?" I asked venomously, glowering at Odd while he shoveled down his food.

"Well, we could talk about your face," Odd proposed. "Oh, wait..."

"Shut up!" I snapped. "Besides, you think my face is ugly, you should try looking in a mirror."

The other three sighed and shook their heads as Odd and I began our now-usual bickering.

"What should we do today?" Aelita interrupted before we could really get started.

"Well, I got permission to go off campus and hang out with Yumi today," Ulrich said guiltily, smiling nervously.

"I thought we could go, uh," Jeremie looked at Aelita anxiously, "_you know_, and... well, _you know_."

"You dog, you," Odd said with a grin, but Jeremie rolled his eyes at the blond.

"Not _that_, you moron."

"Is that all you think about?" I snapped venomously. Odd looked at me thoughtfully.

"Of course not. I think about my dog, Kiwi; I think about my family back home; I think about how boring my life is a lot..." I groaned as he continued to list all the things his tiny brain went over every day.

"I don't think people get any stupider than you," I muttered.

"I don't know about that; haven't you seen Sissi and that loser gang of hers? I'm pretty sure no one could be stupider than that."

"Oh, then you must be no one."

"Ugh, will you two stop it already?" Ulrich grumbled, standing up. "I vote these two spend the day learning how to shut up!"

"I concur," Jeremie said, raising his hand.

"As long as they don't kill each other first..." Aelita said under her breath.

"I don't think so. I'd rather spend my time with Jasmine and Jessie."

"I have to finish that damned physics problem."

"Eww, why?" Odd asked me, wrinkling his nose. "Physics is so... _boring_."

"Not if you have a brain bigger than a peanut!" I retorted, standing up and picking up my tray. "I have to go, before I catch Stupid Disease."

"Oh, yeah, really witty, Gabs, nice one," Odd mocked.

I stuck my tongue out at him and snapped, "Don't call me that," before striding out of the cafeteria without a second glance. When I got to the dormitory room, I lay down on the bed carefully, trying not to aggravate my injuries. Once I was finally comfortable, and _not_ in pain, I narrowed my eyes at the low ceiling. The paint was chipping and the light was flickering eerily, but that wasn't what I was thinking about.

I was confused. My arm gave a painful throb as I thought about the abrasions on my thigh and upper arm, as if just the thought reminded them that they should be aching. Why did I have these stupid injuries, anyways? Because I'd fought in Lyoko and the damage to my mind-Lyoko-being had affected my body here. But Aelita was complaining of no such injuries, and I knew for a fact that I'd hit her with one of my bullets. And if Aelita wasn't hurt, then it stood to reason that Yumi probably wasn't either. So then... why was I hurt? Was something wrong with me? Was I doing something differently than them?

My look towards the ceiling darkened, and I could swear I heard Odd laughing. Probably at me. In my head. Oh, damn, maybe I should go talk to the counselor...

Regardless of my mental state, though, I needed to figure out why I was injured and Aelita wasn't. It wasn't that I wanted Aelita to be hurt; in fact, I was immensely relieved that she was okay. I just wanted to know, and maybe to figure out how to make it so that _I _wouldn't get hurt either. After all, throbbing pain in your leg and arm isn't what I'd call fun. Well, maybe for masochistic psychos, but not for me.

But how the hell would I know what was different between them and myself? How was I supposed to figure that out? It could be anything! It could be some weird genetic thing. Or maybe it was the fact that I was fighting against them. Or it could be the way we entered Lyoko. Maybe I was imagining the whole thing and accidentally hurting myself in my sleep! Or I could be doing something wrong when I was disappearing from Lyoko that they were doing right. Holy crap, what if I was crazy? Maybe I _was_ imagining it all! Maybe it was stress! That would make complete sense!

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

"Oh, oops!" I grimaced at the sound of Odd's voice. Why could he leave me alone? It was like he lived to piss me off! "I thought you'd be in the library doing your boring physics." Strangely, he sounded sincerely surprised and disappointed to see me lying on my bed. I turned my head to glare at him, but I ended up giving him a confused stare. He looked... nervous. It was such a change from his snide attitude from less than half an hour before that I found myself speechless. That seemed to shock him; he stood in the doorway awkwardly and stared at me mutely.

"What do you want, Odd?" I asked when the uncomfortable silence became too much to bear. My tone was completely different from what it had been down in the cafeteria, and certainly the opposite of how it had been the night before, when I'd said the exact same thing. I was considerably shocked when Odd blushed.

"Oh, uh, Aelita asked me to run up here and get her laptop so her and Jeremie could get some work done, so..." He shrugged and turned to Aelita's side of the room, walking to her desk. He obviously knew exactly where everything was. Instead of grabbing her laptop, however, he picked up something that I couldn't see. I scowled at his back suspiciously.

"How long have Aelita and Jeremie been dating?" I asked to break the resumed silence; Odd dropped the thing in shock and whirled around as the thing made a rattly noise. His face was beet red, but I felt mine pale. The noise sounded an awful lot like... but I'd... Oh, shit.

I sat bolt upright with a wince as Odd muttered, "Uh, a year or two..." with a guilty look on his face. "They started dating in ninth grade..." He bit his lip anxiously as I stood up with a slightly pained groan. We stared at each other as the silence returned; it last a full minute, and then we moved simultaneously.

Odd grabbed the bottle of pills and Aelita's computer and dodged me as I lunged at him. "Odd!" I yelled as he sprinted out the door, fury overwhelming me. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, but the abrasion on my thigh no longer seemed to matter or hurt as I followed him. I nearly lost him as I reached the staircase, but I heard his footsteps above me. "Odd!" I yelled again, starting up the stairs with a huff. But as expected, there was no reply. I arrived at the top, drew in a breath of air, and set off down the hallway. I knew that Odd was here somewhere. He had to be. I stopped, listening carefully for any sound.

What I heard was muffled talking, coming from a room halfway down the hall. Silently, I crept forward on my tiptoes, straining to make out words; but the sound was indecipherable until, at last, I stood outside the door. I could understand the words "Odd," "computer," and "idiot." I suddenly got the feeling that I knew whose room this was.

I sighed. "Jeremie? Aelita? Is it alright if I come in?" I called innocently.

"Hold on a second!" Jeremie called back. There was the sound of scuffling, more talking, and then silence. "You... might want to stand back."

"What?"

The door opened, and in a flash of yellow and purple Odd flew out the door, nearly knocking me over in his haste to escape. I let out a frustrated cry and went after him. Again. I heard Aelita and Jeremie say "idiot" again before I reached the stairs and started down them, taking the last three all at once. I was nearly caught up to him now; I could see his purple shirt round the bend ahead of me. All of a sudden, we were outside, slightly blinded by sunlight as we streaked towards the park.

"Odd, get back here!" I screamed; I was gaining. He had to know that any second I would catch him and make him pay. I could hear him panting for air, hear the rattle of the pills, and I knew it was time. I used all of my strength to lunge towards him.

But I didn't expect him to chuck the pills ahead of him and spin around to face me. Let me tell you: colliding head on with someone else _hurts_. We both ended up on the ground: Odd on his back, looking dazed as he stared up at the clouds; me face down on top of him, my face pressed into partially the side of his neck and partially the dirt on the ground, and my head spinning; and his arms holding me to him, making sure both that I didn't roll right over him and that I couldn't jump up after my pills.

"Let—me—go!" I yelled into the dirt in fury, struggling to get out of his arm-lock. I noticed acutely that his chest was rising and falling rapidly beneath me, and he felt very warm and comfortable, a thought that disgusted me. Seriously.

Oh, don't give me that look!

Odd, however, obviously didn't feel like it. "I don't feel like it," he said.

"Odd Della Robbia, you let me go or—"

"Bite me!" he snapped, suddenly losing his calm. I let out an indignant noise; then I retorted, "Fine!"

And I bit him.

I was almost amazed at the speed at which he threw me off him. Taking advantage of his moment of surprise, I leapt for the bottle of pills; they were within my reach, I had them back! And then they were gone. Odd was standing over me suddenly, rubbing his neck where I'd bitten him with one hand, holding my pills in his other.

"I think," he said between clenched teeth, "I figured out why you need these, but maybe you ought to give me _your_ reasons."

Did I mention that I hated him?


	5. Tolerance

((A/N: Yargh! Firstly... I'm sorry about the rather long wait. I kept getting writer's block, but I've overcome it. For now. In any case, I've finally completed Chapter 5! Yay! Secondly: I'd like to thank William's fight for Yumi, Lyoko-MiNts, and elly755 for their super awesome reviews, and I'd like to thank all of my readers for... well, reading, and for being patient while I attempt to wring my brain for the next part of my story. Thanks! Read and Review!!))

**((Disclaimer: Still don't own Code Lyoko.))**

Chapter 5: Tolerance

"_You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."—Friedrich Nietzsche_

Odd and I stood in the park alone, scowling at each other furiously. He was holding my pills close to him defensively, looking at me as if they were some sacred relic or something very valuable that we both desired.

I was absolutely _irate_. First, he's a big dick to me for no reason; then he tries to ask me out when he barely knows my name; and now he's stealing my stuff! Odd was a jerk, for sure. And I was getting those pills back, even if I had to beat him to a bloody pulp to do it.

He seemed to realize my scathing attitude, however; he registered no surprise when I lunged toward him once again. In fact, he immediately reacted, using one hand to hold me away from him and holding my pills away from me with his other hand. He glared at me while I tried to reach around him to the pill container.

"Just tell me why you need them!" he growled, pushing me away only to have to hold me back again.

"It's none of your business!" I snapped, pushing his hand away and reaching for the bottle again, just in time for him to jerk around so that I was reaching over his shoulder instead.

"It is my business!" he declared, struggling to keep the pills away from me. "If you're on antidepressants, that means something's wrong with you, and I don't want to say something stupid that—" he paused, though he continued to play keep-away with my pills. He anxiously looked over his shoulder at me and I noticed how close his face was to mine. I also noticed how incredibly vivid his deep blue eyes were. "I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I don't want to be responsible if you flip out and kill yourself or something," Odd finally continued as if he'd never stopped. "Not that I'm trying to give you ideas or anything; I don't want you to die or anything. And a lot of times, I'm a speak now, think later kind of guy, so the chances are rather high that I _will _say something extremely stupid and send you off to do something that I really didn't mean for you to do. You know what I mean?"

I stared at him, my arm left arm still stretched toward my pills. He didn't seem to notice, because his eyes were still staring into my amber ones. "Well, gee," I said, trying and failing to include an unpleasant tone. Damn those eyes. "I didn't know you cared so much, Odd. But I'll tell you a secret: stealing things from other people doesn't tend to raise the level of trust between two people. Yeah, I know, you're serious," I interrupted, seeing him open his mouth to tell me so. He scowled and I sighed. "And I suppose that, since you care enough to steal them from me, I ought to tell you why I have them." I'll just leave out details. Hmm, now how much to say.

"Okay..." he said slowly when I was silent for a matter of minutes. He shrugged out from under my outstretched arm, turning to face me and putting my pills behind his back with a stubborn look. I definitely wasn't going to get away with telling him nothing; but maybe the bare minimum would satisfy him.

"Like you said, they're antidepressants. They keep me from getting too depressed." He glared at me. Maybe that was too minimal? "My dad died almost a year ago, and then my mom tried to kill herself." It would have been funny to see Odd's glare drop off his face and his complexion pale considerably, if I hadn't been preoccupied with the obvious fact that he was pitying me and with wondering whether I should be glad or frustrated with that. "After her attempt, they diagnosed her with clinical depression. They decided to test me too, and in the end they diagnosed me with atypical depression. That doesn't mean I'm suicidal or anything," I continued warningly, scowling at how everyone assumed that because one was depressed, I was going to try to kill myself. And anyways, I hadn't taken those damn pills in a few months. I think I was building up tolerance to them, because after about two months, they'd stopped working as well. Besides, I really wasn't depressed. I didn't really have any reason to be anymore, now that I knew my dad was still alive. The reason the pills were out on Aelita's desk? I'd been dumping the ones I should have taken by now down the toilet... Of course, Odd really didn't need to know that. "And while I'd rather not talk about it," I carried on, seeing his impatient expression at my thoughtful pause, "I'm not going to go off and kill myself just because you're an idiot, mostly because I already knew that you were."

His glare returned, and then faded away again. Instead, Odd shrugged. "Okay. As long as you aren't lying to me." He held out the bottle to me, but he jerked it back as I reached for it. "You weren't lying, were you?"

"Lying? Me?" I asked, giving him my most innocent expression. Lying? No. Not telling the whole truth? Yes.

"That look just makes me more suspicious." But he held out the pills again, and this time he let me take them. It was oddly silent for a few seconds.

Then I poked him in the shoulder threateningly. "If you ever steal something of mine again, you're dead; you got that?" But I didn't wait for him to answer. Instead I turned and walked away. He didn't follow, but I got the feeling that he was staring at me the whole time I was in sight.

~$*ODD*$~

Odd bit his lip and scowled at his drawing of Kiwi, barely listening to the teacher's voice droning in the background. While World History wasn't his worst subject, it certainly wasn't his favorite either. In any case, he was too busy thinking of what had happened yesterday. The fact that Gabby took antidepressants worried him: regardless of what she told him, he was still concerned that if he said something dumb she would run off and start cutting or something. She didn't really seem like she would, and she had argued that she wouldn't; but then, you never knew, right? So Odd was careful when speaking around her, thinking more about his words than he ever had in his life. To be honest, he didn't even know he knew words like triskadekaphobia and nomenclature, but the harder he thought, the bigger he realized his vocabulary was.

Gabby, meanwhile, was pretending that nothing had happened. In fact, she had gone from being scathing and rude to being cold and pretending that he didn't exist. He would have said this was better, but instead it seemed to make him feel rather lonely. As maddening and annoying as it was to be around her, Odd had to admit that he still liked her. She was unlike any girl he'd ever dated before, and she was beautiful no matter how obnoxious she could be. And she did have her moments.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell her any of that. If she hated him as much as she acted like she did, all he would end up doing was making a fool of himself. Odd wasn't stupid, after all.

"Odd Della Robbia and Gabrielle Bursley."

Odd's head jerked up. "Huh?"

"Mrs. Agestone is pairing us up for the research projects," Ulrich told him, grinning. "And you just got paired up with Gabby."

Odd got the sudden feeling of horror, and it felt strangely like slamming against a wall at full speed. Ulrich was laughing hysterically, presumably at Odd's horrorstruck expression; but Odd hardly heard him. He had the most bizarre suspicion that he wouldn't be alive come next Monday.

~$*GABBY*$~

My life hated me. That much was obvious. How else would this happen? Was it too much to ask that Odd and I have nothing to do with each other? A week-long research project, and my partner just _had_ to be Odd Della Robbia. Of course. And why not? He was intruding upon every other area of my life; he thought I was clinically depressed; he was looking shell-shocked at the very prospect of being my partner. We were the perfect match: as long as he stayed the way he was now, gaping at the teacher with his mouth half-open, we'd get this project done easy.

And then he turned to look at me, and I realized: there was no way it would be that easy. Fate was pulling us together, and it was utterly infuriating. I would have been happier working with a four-headed Minotaur. But Mrs. Agestone had decided, and we were stuck with each other, as long as neither of us died first.

Hmm... that might work...

"Okay then," Mrs. Agestone went on, oblivious to my murder plot and the clear tension that had risen after she'd read off all the pairs. "I want everyone to sit with his or her partner for the rest of the week. I want each pair to choose a country their interested in, and then tell me right away. Each country can have only one group, so it's first come, first serve. Get to work."

With those magic words, people began to move, struggling to find seats that were close to their friends, but with their partners at the same time. I was pleased to see that Jeremie and Ulrich were paired together and were sitting close to Odd and Aelita. Aelita was wearing a sour look, and there was really no speculation to be made as to why. Sissi Delmas was sitting next to her with an identical look. Odd, meanwhile, still looked partially in shock, though he had recovered enough to be giving me a smug look.

"Looks like we're stuck together, huh?" he said, bringing me back to my idea of killing him as I sat in the chair next to him.

"Unfortunately," I growled.

"It won't be that bad," Ulrich insisted with an amused smile. "It's only a week long project. You two can deal with each other for one week, right?"

Odd snickered and leaned back in his chair nonchalantly.

"That would be a miracle," I muttered.

Ulrich and Jeremie both shook their heads. "You're telling us," Jeremie said. They shared a look before shrugging and getting to work.

Which left Odd and I to our own devices.

"Okay, here's the deal," I told him. "The only way we're going to make it through this week is if we're all business. No wisecracks, no teasing; just work. Otherwise, one of us will snap, and then we'll both fail, and I do _not_ fail."

"Oh, good, this'll be my first passing grade this semester!" I groaned and rolled my eyes. "I was kidding! I was kidding! I may not be passing with an A, but I've got a C, which is better than most of my classes!"

I sighed. "Of all the people I could have been stuck with..." I muttered mournfully, closing my eyes and shaking my head. "Okay, fine, let's just get this over with. What country should we do?"

Odd stared at me. "Uhhhhhhhhhh..." he droned. "I dunno... you can choose."

"Oh, gee, _thanks_," I said sarcastically. I strained my mind, trying to choose a country that was interesting, but not frustratingly easy. I'm the type that likes a bit of a challenge, but seeing how Odd was my partner... Around me, people were picking countries like France, Greece, Japan, the U.S., etc. Finally, I sighed. "How about this: we'll randomly point to a place on the world map, and that'll be the country we choose?" Odd just shrugged. I rolled my eyes at him and pulled out my history book, opening it to the Atlas. "Go for it," I ordered, pushing the textbook across the table at him.

He glared at me; but he closed his eyes, held up his hand, waving it around emphatically, and let it drop onto the opened page. He opened one eye nervously.

"Mali." I frowned and leaned towards him to get a better look. From where I was sitting, it looked like he was pointing to Algeria, but he was indeed pointing to Mali.

"Mali," I sighed. Well, at least it wasn't something like Vatican City. I have nothing against either country, but Vatican City, being the smallest country in the world, might be a bit difficult to do a report on. Well, I thought resignedly, this is going to be a long week.

~$**$~

"It won't be that bad," Aelita told me as we walked back to our dorm room, repeating exactly what Ulrich had said. "Just one week. Besides, you might actually find that you two would get along well if you would be civil."

I would have laughed, but Aelita was looking so hopeful that I just shrugged instead. "Right. We'll see."

"You guys seemed to be a little better with each other today..."

I blushed. "Yeah... well, we had that little scene yesterday, you know." I paused, not wanting to go into details.

"He stole your pills," Aelita finished for me. I stared at her.

"H-how did you—"

She turned pink, her face nearly matching her dress. "Well, you kind of left them out, and I saw them... I'm really sorry; I shouldn't have been so nosy, Gabby! That whole thing between you and Odd was my fault. I must have left them on my desk, and of course he'd be curious and look at them. I'm sorry!" She looked at me nervously. I sighed.

"It's okay. I guess it's probably more my fault. I did leave them out; I should have put them away after I du-took them. It's my fault. But... next time, maybe you couldn't look at them?"

Aelita nodded. "I'm sorry. I won't. But really, I think that this will be good for you and Odd. It's hard for the rest of us, you know, being friends with you two while you hate each other."

There was a glimmer of guilt in my gut, but I ignored it. After all, how difficult could it be to deal with two friends who hated each other? She was right about the fact that we had been kinder today: I'd ignored him, for the most part, and he'd ignored me, for the most part.

"Yeah," I said tonelessly. "Sorry. He just pushes all the wrong buttons, you know?"

Aelita smiled. "I understand. But I really think that you two could at least try to be friends. For all of our sakes."

I scowled but nodded. "I guess I could try. I'm not gonna promise anything, though. We're gonna start that stupid project tonight. With any luck, we'll finish early."

Aelita laughed and rolled her eyes. "I see. Well, try not to completely destroy the dorm then. I'm going to be with Sissi working on ours."

"Which country did you choose again?"

"Brazil."

"Ah. That'll be... interesting."

"With Sissi?" Aelita laughed dryly. "We'll be lucky if we get anything done! At least Odd won't bore you with talk about how beautiful he is, or how popular he is, or how much he wishes Yumi and Ulrich weren't dating so that he could steal Ulrich away."

"She not that bad..." I muttered, though I kind of had to agree. From the week that I'd known her, I could tell that Sissi's father spoiled her, and that her popularity and looks made her think of herself as near royalty at Kadic.

"Well, neither is Odd," she replied, setting her things on her bed. But I couldn't bring myself to admit that she may be right.

~$**$~

"One more day," I told myself, aware that two younger students were staring at me like I was crazy. Then again, I _was_ talking to myself. That does tend to give off the insane vibe. Nevertheless, I repeated, "One more day. One more day, and we'll be finished with this damned project, and I'll be free of Odd again. If I can just make it through this one more day..." I knocked on the door, took one last breath, and plunged into Odd and Ulrich's room.

I gasped, closed my burning eyes, and started coughing as I was hit by the scent of feet, B.O., and dog. As many times as I'd been in there this past week, I just couldn't get used to the odor of two teenage boys. I dared to open one eye, seeing Odd laughing at my reaction (again...) and Ulrich fishing through one of his drawers. Ulrich looked up at my coughs.

"Oh, hey, Gabby," he said, a smile playing on his lips. "I was just heading out. I'll leave you two alone so you can finish up."

I scowled at him, imagining I looked a bit like a pirate but not really caring at the moment. "You don't have to, really."

"Nah, me and Yumi are going to practice some Pencak Silat. I'd be going even if you weren't here working."

I sighed, a big mistake as I inhaled the dirty smell. My sigh turned into a gag. "God! I don't how you two can live like this!"

They laughed. "I can't!" Ulrich told me. "Why do you think I'm leaving?" With that, he waved and passed me to the fresh air.

I resisted the urge to plug my nose as I crossed the room and sat in Ulrich's desk chair (I figured that was probably the safest place in the room).

"Okay," Odd started, taking a seat in his own chair. "Where were we?"

"Sundiata," I replied, pulling out my notes and my computer.

"Huh?" I glared at him. "Oh, right, Sundiata! That one guy who led the people against what's-his-name and took Mali into a period of peace." I rolled my eyes. I had grown to hate these smart-ass moments when he showed how good he _could_ do in school, but didn't because he had the attention span of a goldfish.

"Sumanguru," I corrected. "He overthrew Sumanguru."

"That's what I meant." He got a confused look on his face. "What's that smell?"

"That would be your disgusting feet and your smelly dog."

"No, not that! And Kiwi isn't smelly! I meant the good smell!" He sniffed. "Like oranges..."

"Ah," I nodded. With a smirk, I drew from beneath my shirt... "A car freshener. Sunny Citrus!"

For a second, Odd looked stumped as he stared at the bright orange pine tree car freshener I'd pulled out of my t-shirt. Then he frowned at me. "It doesn't smell _that_ bad in here..."

I grimaced. "Sure, not to someone who lives in here. But come from Aelita's and my room, this place smells terrible."

Odd pouted, but he shrugged. "Right... well, we should finish up today, and then you don't have to deal with it anymore. So what's next?"

"Mansa Musa," I told him, opening my laptop. "He was the grandson of Sundiata's half-brother."

"Ooohh, I hate history!" Odd groaned, slumping in his chair. "It's so boring!"

"No it's not!" I argued.

"Yes it is!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yes—you know what, let's just finish this, okay. So, this Mansa Musa? What did he do?"

"He ruled during the peak of the country. Helped increase trade by taking over the cities of Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenne. Made a pilgrimage to Mecca."

"I didn't know Timbuktu was in Mali."

"Well, it is."

"Hm... I'm bored."

God, please let us finish this today, I thought desperately.

Hours later, there was a loud crash outside. Odd jumped to his feet, racing to the door in the time that it took me to get up. Damn, that kid was fast. Within seconds, he was out the door, streaking down the hallway with his phone to his ear.

But for some reason, I felt sluggish and tired. Maybe it was the air? My citrus air freshener hadn't helped the room at all. Regardless, I ran down the hallway after Odd, reaching the stairs and taking them at full speed. When I reached my floor, however, I froze.

Aelita, Odd, and Jeremy were sprinting towards me, _away_ from what looked suspiciously like leftover spaghetti from today's lunch. Except that it was moving quickly towards me too, and I was vaguely certain that spaghetti didn't usually move at all, unless of course my mom made it (lord knew what that woman used in her spaghetti; luckily, we had chefs and cooks to make us food that was edible). I swallowed as Jeremy and Aelita yelled at me to run, growing ever closer as they came at me. I tried to obey them, tried to pick up my feet and move, but I was so tired. As the three reached me, someone took my hand, pulling me along with them; but I was just too tired. I felt my body go limp, and my vision went black.

~$*ODD*$~

Odd couldn't describe the terror, even to himself, that he experienced when he felt Gabby's body go limp and stumble as she collapsed into him. He nearly collapsed too as her full weight fell into his body; he let out a cry of frustration, causing Jeremy and Aelita to look around and rush back to help him. They somehow managed to get Gabby onto Odd's back, though how they did it before the spaghetti monster caught up to them, Odd would never know. Panting, the three of them returned to their fleeing, taking the stairs three at a time in an effort to regain their distance. They reached fresh air and kept running, seeing Yumi and Ulrich running towards them.

"Man, she's heavy!" Odd groaned as they met in the middle of the courtyard. They lost the spaghetti monster; it was nowhere in sight.

"What's happening?" Ulrich asked. "Odd, what did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything! She just fainted when the spaghetti came at her."

"What are you talking about?" Yumi asked, looking at Odd with an eybrow raised. She couldn't help thinking that they looked really cute together. Odd scowled at her, getting the feeling that he knew what she was thinking, but Aelita and Jeremie saved him the trouble of answering.

"Our lunch is taking its revenge. Aelita and I were attacked by a spaghetti monster," Jeremie told the two.

"X.A.N.A.'s probably behind this. Let's head to the—"

Aelita was interrupted by screams from the building they'd just exited. All five of them looked around; Odd was surprised that Gabby didn't wake up, it was so loud.

"I got it," Ulrich said, already running in that direction. "You guys get to the lab and deactivate the tower!"

"I'll help Ulrich. Odd, Aelita, can you guys handle this?"

Odd smirked. "Oh yeah! It'll be easy!"

Aelita and Jeremie rolled their eyes simultaneously, while Yumi shook her head at him, already sprinting after Ulrich.

"Let's go," Jeremie told the other two. He and Aelita started off for the sewers; Odd took a deep breath and tore after them.

Five minutes later, Odd discovered that it is very difficult to skateboard with a girl on your back. Jumping over the sewers proved near impossible, but somehow the four of them made it to the ladder, safe and dry. Odd could help but think that it was miraculous.

As it turned out, getting Gabby up the ladder, and then down into the factory, was just about as impossible. But again, they managed to get her to the lab with only a few minor bumps and scratches. Odd gently leaned her against the wall, trusting Jeremie to take care of her while he was in Lyoko. Then he and Aelita headed for the scanners.

"Okay, I've launched the scan, and this time you'll be in the forest sector. Transfer. Scanner. Virtualization!" The usual flash of light and gust of wind, and Odd and Aelita appeared in Lyoko. Odd landed on his feet, but Aelita still wasn't used to it again: she landed on her feet, and then fell to her knees with a small cry.

"Yeah! Okay!" Odd yelled, stretching. "Lyoko hasn't changed a bit!"

"How can you land on your feet, Odd?" Aelita asked, getting to her own feet and brushing off her pants and watching as Jeremie virtualized the Overboard. "It's been three years; you'd think you'd have grown a little rusty by now."

"Odd Della Robbia doesn't get rusty, Aelita! I'm too good for that."

"Right..."

"If you two are done, Ulrich and Yumi are being attached by spaghetti, so do you think you could hurry it up? The tower's to the north."

"Gotcha, Einstein! Let's go, Princess!" Odd jumped onto the Overboard, and Aelita jumped on behind him, and they zoomed off.

Within minutes, however, they were forced to come to a stop. In fact, Odd would have come to a full stop if Aelita was standing next to him, yelling at him to get his ass in gear. His attention was focused on the fiery orange-haired girl standing in his path.

"Odd!" Aelita screamed, and Odd jerked the Overboard to the left just in time to dodge Gabby's bullet.

"But that's—there's no way!" Odd yelled, shooting a laser arrow at the block next to Gabby and looping around one of the gargantuan trees to dodge her next attack.

"Odd, we've already established that X.A.N.A. created a Gabby clone," Jeremie yelled. "Just hurry up and get rid of her!"

"No, what I meant was—There's no way that's a clone!"

"Odd—"

"I know you guys don't believe me, but I just... I know it's her! Something about her—I just know she's the real Gabby!" Odd came to a stop behind a tree, allowing Aelita to jump down.

"Odd, Gabby's still here with me," Jeremie told him, sounding frustrated. "Still out like a light. She can't be in both places at once!"

Odd bit his lip as he peeked around the tree and narrowly avoided being hit by a laser from another block.

"Well," Aelita said with an anxious frown, "whether it's her or not, she's in our way. The tower is on the other side, and we're on this side."

"Yeah," Odd nodded. "Okay, I'll distract her and the monsters. You just get to the tower." Aelita nodded. "Okay. Ready... go!" he yelled, zooming around the tree and firing his laser arrows at Gabby and the blocks. All he had to do was distract her, he thought desperately. Just let Aelita get to the tower.

~$*GABBY*$~

I opened my eyes to the sight of trees, the biggest trees I'd ever seen, stretching into beyond everywhere I looked. I was laying flat on my back on one of the many paths that wound between the trees, and like in the desert, the edges of the path dropped into seemingly nothing. I groaned, sitting up. Was this another part of Lyoko? What was I doing here? One second I'd been at school, watching a giant thing made of spaghetti come my way; the next second I was here.

"Gabby..."

I jumped up and spun around to face the speaker; but it was only my dad. My heart fell at the sight of him. So then, had our last attempt at materialization failed? I opened my mouth to ask him.

"Yes," he answered before I even got the question out, a grim expression on his face; "we failed. But I've brought you back here to try again. Last time... last time, you failed me. You allowed them to get past you. But this time, you will win. Do you understand me?"

I grimaced at his cold, disappointed tone. I nodded quickly. He shot me an icy look and left me standing there, wondering how my father had gotten this way. What had happened to my kind-hearted father, the one who had praised me when I did things, no matter how bad we both knew I'd done them?

I swallowed, sighing and turning about. Might as well explore a bit. If I was lucky, I would find them before they found me. I set off down the path I was on, in the opposite direction as my father.

I managed to find the supposed enemies rather quickly. It was actually rather easy, as they were zooming towards me on a snowboard/skateboard thing, hovering above the ground. Odd was in front, and Aelita was standing behind him, arms around his waist. For some reason, the sight of them that way made me angry.

Oh, god, I thought as I drew my gun, don't tell me I'm actually starting to like him. I took careful aim at the pair as some strange block-shaped monsters joined me.

"Odd!" Aelita cried as I pulled the trigger, and they swerved, dodging the bullet. I fired again as Odd shot off an arrow of sorts and destroyed the block next to me; he circled around one of the trees, zipping between them to evade the attacks of me and the blocks. I scowled when they went behind a tree and didn't resurface. What were they doing behind there? Plotting some way to beat me?

"Come on, Odd, Aelita," I muttered, taking a step towards the tree and cocking the gun. "Come on out."

Muffled conversation was all that answered me. I watched as the blocks edged past me, but they had hardly come within five feet of the tree when Odd jumped out on his hovering board, screaming, "Go!" He was shooting his arrows, "Laser Arrows," at the monsters and me, and I heard them whistle past me, making contact with the monsters and causing them to explode. I fired my gun at him multiple times, only hitting him once. He flew backwards off his board, tumbling across the ground. Now, there was just me and one block against Aelita and Odd. Aelita, taking advantage of the fact that my focus was on Odd, fired one of her pink energy balls, hitting me in the arm and knocking me sideways. I felt that tingling sensation as the field of energy stretched to cover my body; I shook myself, trying to get rid of the feeling as I jumped up.

"Run, Aelita!" Odd shouted, shooting at the block and hitting his mark. The distraction was all that I needed to hit him with another bullet. He recoiled as it hit him, and I twisted around and fired at Aelita. She dove behind a tree. I stumbled forward as Odd shot me in the shoulder. Turning to face him again, I flicked the switch on my gun to "BOMB." I was done messing around with him; and I didn't want my father to be disappointed in me again. I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger as Odd fired his laser arrow at me.

I had time to see Odd fly backwards, dissolving into small pixels, before I felt myself doing the same.

I woke up in the factory. I knew it was the factory, because there was the big computer that I'd turned on. Jeremie was sitting in the chair in front of it, typing frantically and saying something into the headset he was wearing. My left arm was numb, presumably from Aelita's attack, and my shoulder was bleeding. If Jeremie just turned around, he would probably see the blood dripping down my arm.

"Hurry, Aelita!" Jeremie cried. "Yumi and Ulrich—" His jaw clenched, and I shifted silently to a more comfortable position, unsure if I should reveal that I was awake or stay silent. Looking around the lab, I saw a ladder leading both up and down. I rose to my feet, edging quietly towards the ladder. By my movement came a bit too late; across the room from me, the elevator slid open and Odd stepped out. "Odd, there you are. Ready for a return trip?"

Odd's eyes met mine; his mouth opened slightly; his arm came up to point at me.

"Return to the past, now."

A blindingly bright white light enveloped us, and then I was sitting at the lunch table eating spaghetti with my friends and Odd. Odd was observing me carefully, his eyes traveling to my shoulder. I blushed; if I didn't get out of there, the blood would probably seep through my shirt, and he would probably notice it. I edged back in my chair, trying desperately to think of an escape path. Odd was still staring at me as if he could see my thoughts, and now that I was basically cowering in my seat, I'd drawn the attention of the others as well.

"Are you all right?" Aelita asked me in concern.

"Uh, yes; actually, no. I, um, I don't feel good, I think I'm going to go to the infirmary..." I muttered, quickly standing up and rushing out of the cafeteria, nearly running to my dorm room. Once I was there, I shut the door and hastened to my desk, where I'd kept the spare gauze Nurse Yolande had given me for my last wounds. Stripping off my shirt and sweatshirt, I was pleased to see that blood had only soaked through my t-shirt slightly. As I bandaged my newly acquired injuries, I wondered how much Odd had seen before Jeremie had (clearly) returned us to the past.

I sighed and put on a new t-shirt, wishing vehemently that I didn't have to go to class.

~$**$~

I knocked on the door, breathed in the fresh air, and stepped into the room. And was greeted by—

A clean room. Gabby couldn't stop her jaw from falling to the floor. Well, not literally. But she was definitely surprised: it smelled _normal_.

"Uh, what happened here?" I asked. Odd was laying on his bed, playing a video game and looking tired, and Ulrich, once again, was rummaging around in a drawer. At the sound of my voice, Ulrich straightened up, laughing.

"Odd had a sudden change of heart and decided he'd rather not live like a wild animal. Who knew, huh? Anyways, I'm heading out."

"You don't have to go," I told him with a pleading look. "Really—" But I already knew what he was going to say.

"Nah, I promise Yumi we could practice our Pencak Silat today. Don't trash my room while I'm gone," he said half-jokingly. He smiled and passed me, still snickering. "Have fun."

I glared at his back until the door shut behind him, and then turned to Odd. "So what's this about?" I asked, gesturing at the refreshingly clean room. "What brought this on?"

"Huh? Well, I guess I just got tired of you whining about it. And it did smell a little weird." He grinned as he shut off his game. "So I just tidied up a bit."

"A bit? This is... a miracle." He was clearly lying about his reasons, or it would have been clean the last time that I'd come here (at this same time, actually, but... well, you know); but he seemed to be in a better mood than normal, so I decided not to press him for the truth. Instead I took Ulrich's seat, still looking around in awe. "I can't believe you did this..."

"You sound disappointed," Odd laughed, taking his seat across from me. "So... We just finished Sundiata, right?"

I stared at him. "Um... yes."

"Great. So next is... Mansa What's-'is-face, right?"

"Mansa Musa?" I corrected, though in truth I was quite baffled. He certainly hadn't known all this stuff last time we'd lived this day. So what was different this time? Did he know that today wasn't the first time we'd lived this time? Did he remember, like I did, what had happened before Jeremie had pressed that button and sent us back into the past? He was staring at my shoulder again, as if by staring at it, he would see the secret injuries that I managed to hide so well. "Yes. Mansa Musa."


	6. AUTHOR'S NOTE! IMPORTANT!

**((Hey there, !! My marvelous readers!! My fantastic reviewers!!**

**Alas! (Have you ever noticed that "Alas!" is never a good thing?) You're all going to hate me. Or maybe you won't? Well, anyways.**

**Alas! (There it is again!) I'm afraid that the time has come. I must say the words that I always hoped never to say... if that made sense. You see, After five chapters of (hopefully) awesomeness, my time has come. I know this sounds mournful, and it is, but bear with me. **

**I'm a recruit in the U.S. Navy, and tomorrow, I head off to basic training for two months. That in itself isn't too terrible. What is, you ask? Well... I'll have no access to my computer: meaning I'll have no access to my story, or my internet. I'm sure you can see the problem. If I have no access, how can I write? How can I post? Well....**

**I can't. Which is the reason for this rambly Author's Note. I'm afraid that I must put Against All Odds on a hiatus, lasting at least two months. This means that I won't be able to write until November. This means that I won't be able to post until November, possibly even December. **

**I know you're sad! You can cry, it's okay! (j/k!!) But please don't assume that my story is being abandoned, like so many are. I definitely intend to continue Against All Odds as soon as I have time (and access to my computer).**

**Thanks so much for understanding, and I'll see you all (hopefully) in approximately two months!! **

**C.))**


	7. Rabid

((A/N: Holy Goodness! I am so SO sorry for the tremendously long wait. I have my reasons, of course (including writer's block and time constraints), but you've all been waiting a long time for this chapter, so I won't bore you with details. Suffice it to say that I've finally finished this chapter and hopefully won't take such a long hiatus next time. Or any time. Anyways, enjoy the chapter, and sorry again for the horrible wait!))

**((Disclaimer: I still don't own Code Lyoko, and I presumably never will.))**

Chapter 6: Rabid

"_Ever noticed that 'What the hell' is always the right decision?"—Marilyn Monroe_

"Today, Mali has nearly ten million people living there, so you couldn't call it obscure, even if it's not one of those very well known countries like the U.S., Italy, China, etc."

"About eighty percent of them farm, and ten percent are nomads. Only about thirty percent of them can read and write. Also, there's a huge ethnic diversity."

"And that's the history of Mali!" Odd finished enthusiastically. The class just continued to stare at us with dulled eyes.

"Excellent job," Ms. Agestone said with a nod, writing something down on her clipboard. "Let's see, Sissi, Aelita, you two are next."

I sighed as I sat down in the seat next to Odd, where I'd been forced to sit for the past week. Last day, I told myself, and then I can go back to my normal seat. It was so hard, trying not to fall asleep. It wasn't that I was bored. Aelita and Sissi's report on the history of Brazil was interesting, if only because Sissi's face boasted an eternally sour expression and Aelita was trying hard not to smirk. I wondered vaguely what Aelita'd done to Sissi, but decided I was much too tired to bother to find out. I'd had a really crappy night of sleep the night before, due to the pain in my arm. Honestly, the whole injury thing was getting old. And I still hadn't figured out why the same thing didn't happen to Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, or Aelita.

And I had a feeling my dad was angry with me again. After all, I'd lost, again. And I was pretty sure that Odd knew that I'd been there, even if Aelita and the others hadn't figured it out. Every time something weird happened, Odd looked at me suspiciously, like he thought I was responsible. Maybe he expected me to faint again. To be honest, I'd almost started expecting it myself. Last time, my father had caught me off guard by sucking me into Lyoko without warning, and while I was completely awake. I had no idea if he would do it again, or maybe the word was when? Ever since he'd reappeared to me, he'd seemed like a completely different man. It was unnerving, how much he'd changed. I had the sneaking suspicion that he was lying to me about still being stuck in Lyoko. Of course, I had nothing to hint at that, but... well, it was just a gut feeling. And if he was lying to me about that, what else could he be lying about? And why would he lie in the first place?

"Hey, Stupid," Odd muttered, poking my arm gently, as if he knew it was still tender where he'd hit me with his Laser Arrow. "Class is over. You just gonna sit here and stare into space?"

I blinked and looked around; indeed, people were in motion, packing their bags and heading for the door. I shook my head, figuring I probably _did_ look pretty stupid, sitting here while everyone else was leaving. "Uh, must have zoned out..."

"Why?"

I glared at him. "Why do you ask such stupid questions? Why do people normally zone out?"

"My presentation was that boring, was it?" Aelita asked with a smile as she joined us. She laughed when I quickly shook my head.

"Nah, I was just distracted. Thinking about my dad." Aelita immediately stopped smiling, exchanging the look for worry. "Good things!" I added hurriedly, smiling through the lie. "Good things about my dad. Treasuring the memories." She looked uncertain, but Odd just shrugged.

"Well, while you two waste your time around here being all sentimental, I'll be going to Physics, the last class of the day on a sunny Friday. Just don't expect me to loan you my notes because you decided to skip."

I snorted. "As if _your_ notes would do us any good anyways."

"That's true," Odd admitted, " but at least I'll actually have some!" And he put on his backpack and walked out; Aelita and I rolled our eyes at his back and followed slowly. When Odd was out of earshot, Aelita grinned.

"You and Odd probably had the best presentation, you know. I guess you guys work pretty well together, huh?"

I glared at her. "Yeah, right. Well, once he had that change of heart and cleaned his pig-sty of a room, and I could actually breathe, it seemed like we focused more. I still can't figure why he just up and cleaned his room."

"He said he did it for you, didn't he?" Aelita pointed out with an innocent smile.

"He said he did it because he was tired of my complaining. But if that were true, you'd think he would have done it the first time-" I cut myself off before I said, "we lived that day," instead saying, "I came in and almost passed out. I mean, it was that horrible, Aelita." Must not show that I know time is flashing back. Either she'll think I'm crazy or she'll figure out that I... well, that I know.

"Well... maybe it was just that, a change of heart? Maybe he just got tired of living like a wild animal," she pointed out smartly, sticking out her tongue. "What I don't get is why Ulrich ever put up with it."

I frowned, getting the feeling she was holding something back. But I wasn't about to interrogate her. So I just said, "I guess," and we continued on to Physics.

Physics was awful. What I'd said about Odd's notes was true: the fact was that I knew Odd well enough by now to know that he didn't care for this class, nor math or history or any other theoretical class requiring the use of a brain bigger than a peanut; therefore, his notes would probably not be much use at all.

The sad fact was that my notes probably wouldn't be much use either. Regardless of the fact that I had managed to catch up to the lesson that the Kadic class was at, I had absolutely no clue what was going on. Sad, since Physics was one of my favorite classes. Oh well. As long as I passed, I supposed I'd have to find something else to base my future career around. Like...

The Circus?

Suddenly, Sissi, who I had the misfortune of sitting next to this period, went completely stiff. I probably wouldn't normally have noticed, except that she was normally rather fidgety, and her lack of movement was odd. Well, that, and the soft gasp that accompanied it, which I seemed to be the only one to hear. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, trying to focus on Ms. Hertz and her lecture about lever arms, but wanting to be sure she wasn't about to throw up on me. She didn't seem green or nauseous, so I started to turn back to Ms. Hertz; then I did a double take.

She was staring at me. Her eyes were wide, her pupils shrunk from normal size, her hands were clenched tightly in her lap, and her mouth... was that foam at the corners of her mouth? She looked... crazy...

Without my thinking about it, my hand was in the air. I heard Ms. Hertz pause in her lecture, but I didn't turn away from Sissi. There was something in her eyes, something wrong and different. A symbol perhaps? There, in the center of her pupils? It looked so... familiar.

"Yes, Gabby?" her voice called from the front of the room; clearly she needed new glasses, because it was quite clear that something was wrong with Sissi. So I clarified.

"I think something's wrong with Sissi," I said loudly, just in case she was partially deaf too. Obviously not, as she scowled at me but started towards us.

As soon as Ms. Hertz moved, Sissi did to. She let out a terrifying primal scream and lunged-

At Ulrich, one chair over from me on my other side, knocking me aside in the process. My entire chair and I hit the ground with a loud thud, and I could swear I felt my skull shatter as I hit my head against the table behind us. Fighting the blackness of what was more likely to be a concussion than a fractured skull, I pulled myself to my feet amid the screams and panicking of the rest of the class. Ulrich was struggling to keep Sissi, who was trying to bite him, away. Ms. Hertz was trying, and failing, to regain control.

My vision swam hazily, and I winced as the back of my head flashed momentarily with pain.

There was a yell from Sissi, and my vision cleared in time to see Ulrich sprint from the room, followed quickly by the rabid Sissi. Sudden silence followed this, and I noticed that Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd, in all the commotion, had slipped away.

My head throbbed again, and this time, the darkness engulfed me.

~$*ODD*$~

"It's X.A.N.A. I know it is," Jeremie cried as he lead the way to the manhole in the park. "This time, he's after Ulrich. We have to help him!"

"Yumi's going to meet us there," Aelita added, hanging up her cell as the guys lifted the cover from the manhole. "Hurry!"

But Odd was hesitant. He'd seen Gabby hit her head on the table as Sissi leaped over her, and her confused look afterwards told him that she'd hit a little harder than she would ever let on. Aelita looked at Odd as if she could read his mind.

"You can go back if you want, Odd," she said softly as Jeremie climbed down the ladder. "I'm sure that Yumi and I can handle it."

Slowly, Odd shook his head. "No... The rest of the class is there... and I'm sure Ms. Hertz will take care of her." Aelita nodded, smiling. Odd scowled. "What are you waiting for? We haven't got all day, Princess."

The factory, as always, was deserted. The three students slid down the rope and pressed the button to call the old elevator. Odd took a deep breath as they all got in. Once the door was shut, he turned to Jeremie and Aelita.

"If Gabby's there already, then I think I might have grounds for a theory about how," he said quickly, continuing before the other two could interrupt him. "It'll probably sound crazy, but... well, seeing how we've got no ideas, at least it's something, right?"

The other two looked at each other cautiously.

"So why don't you just tell us now? We all know she'll already be there, seeing how we actually do have an idea of how: X.A.N.A. created her, remember?" Jeremie said, looking around as the elevator doors opened up. Odd scowled, but Jeremie ignored him, saying, "get to the scanners, hurry!" and rushing out.

The doors closed and Odd was left with Aelita, who looked about as disbelieving as Jeremie.

"Aelita..." Odd pleaded. "You've got to believe me: I know it's Gabby. I can't explain how, but... I just have this feeling, and I know it's her."

Aelita seemed to relax a little bit. "Odd... there's no way to get to Lyoko but the scanners. That's it; and she's not using them."

"Hmph," Odd replied, pouting and turning to the door, which was again opening, this time to reveal Yumi. "Fine, don't believe me. We'll just see who's right." And he stubbornly strode to his usual scanner. Yumi looked at Aelita in confusion, and Aelita shrugged, and both girls went to their own scanners. Within minutes, they were on Lyoko.

"The tower is in the ice region this time. And Ulrich says to please hurry up; he's getting tired of staving off Sissi," Jeremie told them.

"Right," the three replied, jumping onto their vehicles as they appeared. With no further conversation, they were off. It seemed that in no time at all, Gabby (whether she was real or not) was standing in front of them, wielding her gun with a slight scowl on her face. If Odd hadn't known any better, he would have said she'd just been yelled at for something she'd done wrong. The way her expression flickered from irritated to anxious to embarrassed seemed so... human. Odd knew for sure that she was the real Gabby; so why couldn't the others tell?

Yumi, seeing imminent attack from the fiery haired girl, let out a yell and threw her fans at Gabby. Neither of them made contact, however, as Gabby performed an almost Matrix move in order to avoid them. In retaliation, she aimed her gun at the trio and pulled the trigger. But what she fired wasn't a bullet; it was a bomb.

Realizing this last minute, Odd dodged out of the way; Yumi and Aelita were not so lucky, and both were blown backwards off the hover-scooter, which promptly disappeared. However, both girls were relatively unharmed.

"Aelita, Yumi, get to the tower! I'll hold her off," Odd yelled, back on track and aiming a Laser Arrow. Yumi and Aelita nodded, sprinting around the fray while Odd provided a distraction by firing his weapon at Gabby.

But a sense of deja vu hit Odd as Gabby quickly shook the shot off; a vision of Gabby in clothes that were getting stained by blood last time came into mind. She'd appeared to be bleeding exactly where Odd had hit her with his Laser Arrow as she'd blown him up with her bomb. Were they're attacks on this Gabby actually physically harming the real Gabby? There was only one way to find out; but hitting Gabby with more Laser Arrows seemed unthinkable if they actually were hurting her. Sure, in Lyoko she shook the attack off like it was nothing, but in the real world?

But then, how could Odd defeat her without attacking her? His best bet, he supposed, would be to keep her occupied. Odd smiled; he'd like nothing more.

Odd circled closer and closer around Gabby, now watching him closely with her full attention, her weapon trained on him. After a few cycles, he was at her back, and he leapt off his board at her; she was too fast, however. Whipping around, she fired her gun-

And, miraclously, missed. In fact, she missed by such a wide margin that Odd had the sneaking suspicion that she'd done it on purpose.

They collided, and Odd managed to knock her gun away, though again he had the feeling that she wasn't trying as hard as normal. Without really knowing how he did it, he wound around Gabby to her back, catching her in a choke hold and holding her right arm tight behind her. She struggled, but it seemed half-hearted. Odd was confused; why wasn't she trying?

But he had no time to ponder this. "Are you the real you?" he asked. Unsurprisingly, a confused look blossomed on her face.

"The real... what the hell are you on about, Odd?" she snapped, renewing her struggles.

"Everyone else thinks you're just a copy of you, created by X.A.N.A., but I know the truth: you are the real you," Odd clarified; he could see her eyes now, and he could tell that he was right.

But perhaps he should have been paying more attention to the hand that he'd left free, which was now aiming an awkward backwards punch at his groin. It didn't have much force behind it, but he was shocked enough to loosen his grip on her. She spun out of his grasp and kneed him, unfortunately in the same area. While Odd bent double, whimpering slightly, Gabby jumped at her gun. She was within reach of it-

But she never got to it because Yumi's fans cut across her outstretched arm, and she knew she had lost as she depixelated.

Odd stared at where Gabby'd been in shock, then turned to Yumi.

Well, at least he'd be able to figure out if the attacks were hurting her...

~$*GABBY*$~

When I awoke, I was only mildly surprised to see that I was no longer in the physics room. I was also only mildly surprised to see that I was now in a bed in the infirmary. I was, however, quite surprised to see Sissi in the only other bed in the room, sitting straight up and bawling her eyes out; and to see Ulrich sitting at the foot of my bed with a half smile on his face. He was looking at Sissi as though trying hard not to laugh. The nurse appeared to be treating Sissi at the moment, so I attempted to sit up.

My small movement (which went uncompleted regardless due to a throb across my skull and pain in my arm) attracted the attention of the nurse, however, and she whirled on me faster than I could blink.

"Now, don't you do that!" she scolded. "You have a concussion, and that arm needs rest. I don't know what you cut it on, but either way, you will NOT sit up until I give you permission, Miss Bursley!"

Of course, by then, I'd already eased myself back into my bed, but I appeased her by nodding slowly and she turned back to Sissi, who was saying something about squirrels. I noticed now that Principal Delmas was sitting on her other side, desperately trying to calm his daughter.

"Now, Elizabeth, calm down and tell us what happened at once. There's no need for all these tears. You're safe now," he said, holding her hand in his.

"Sq-sq-squr-" Sissi shuddered, continuing to cry. I kicked Ulrich, who seemed about to burst out laughing.

"Sorry," he muttered so that just I could hear.

"What happened?" I asked, ignoring the pounding in my head.

"That's what they're trying to find out. Sissi keeps talking about squirrels..."

He looked like he was going to laugh again, but I glared at him as the nurse returned her attention to me.

"Well, we seem to be making no progress with Sissi. But rabies doesn't just come from nowhere. Oh, well, let's just have a look at you, Gabby. And Ulrich, I think you should go now." Ulrich sighed and bid me farewell, exiting and presumably heading to tell his friends what had happened.

"Hm," the nurse said thoughtfully, pulling out her light and shining it into my eyes. "You had quite a hard knock to the head, you know."

"Sissi has rabies?" I asked, just to clarify.

"Had. I've given her the medicine for it, and you and Ulrich the vaccine, just in case; you two were the closest in contact with her. But you shouldn't worry about it. You'll be just fine in no time."

"How'd she get it?"

"Squirrels!" Sissi screamed, diving under her bed linens, to the dismay of her father.

"Squirrels," the nurse said wisely.

~$*ODD*$~

"So X.A.N.A. gave Sissi rabies?" Yumi asked with a smirk. Ulrich nodded, now free to laugh at Sissi to his heart's content.

"And Sissi gave it to me," Ulrich continued, "by way of making the nurse paranoid enough to give me and Gabby vaccines for it."

"So technically, X.A.N.A. gave you rabies?" Yumi replied logically, sniggering.

"Yup!" Ulrich laughed. Jeremie, Odd, and Aelita didn't seem to find this funny.

"Rabies can be serious, you know," Aelita said factually. But neither of the couple seemed to care much. Jeremie just shrugged at her.

"I think the more important issue here is Gabby," Odd interrupted.

"Uh, no. I think rabies is a bigger deal than a concussion," Ulrich argued. Odd scowled at him.

"I'm talking about those cuts that she got, the ones no one knows where they came from. They had to have been from us, right?"

"Odd, that's impossible. How could we be the ones who gave her the cuts if she's not the one in Lyoko?" Jeremie asked.

"What if somehow Gabby gets into Lyoko by being asleep?" Odd asked. He was onto something, he knew it; but now the others obviously thought he was nuts.

"Odd, you can't get into Lyoko just by falling asleep," Jeremie said matter-of-factly. "You'd have to be in the scanner. It's impossible otherwise."

"Well, yeah, but every time we see her there, or whatever that thing is that looks like her, the her that's still here on earth is asleep. And I know it's her!"

"How could you possibly know that?" Yumi asked skeptically, speaking for all of Odd's friends.

"I just do! Wait, the cuts! I bet I can tell you exactly where they are." He pointed at the spot on his upper right arm, where he'd hit Gabby with his Laser Arrow. "One here." Then he pointed to his forearm, where Yumi's fan had slashed across. "And one here."

"Odd, this is rid-"

"Actually," Ulrich interrupted, "that's exactly where they are."

It was awkwardly silent. Odd felt victorious; he'd proven himself right. They had to believe him now!

"Purely coincidence," Jeremie said finally. Odd nearly punched him in the face. "It has to be. There's no way!"

And as much as the other's hated to admit it, they had to agree with Jeremie. They had no solid proof. Odd ground his teeth together in annoyance.

"Fine," he snapped, marching to the elevator and smashing the button with a scowl. The last thing he saw as the elevator closed was his friends pitying faces. But Odd didn't care. He knew he was right. He just needed some way to prove it.


End file.
